Description
Bone is a living organ maintained by osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Osteoblasts, the bone-forming cells, secrete bone matrix such as type I collagen. Osteoblasts function as an organized tight epithelium to separate the bone extracellular matrix from the general extracellular fluid. As the matrix grows, osteoblasts are incorporated into the matrix as osteocytes. Osteocytes communicate through cellular processes that run within canaliculi in the matrix. The complex interactions between cell-cell and cell-ECM are critical for the process of bone formation and mineralization. Since these complex interactions are strictly dependent on the three-dimensional (3D) environment, ScienCell has developed a 3D osteoblast spheroid formation kit (3D-HCOSF) in which cells maintain direct cell-cell and cell-ECM interactions in all three dimensions. Osteoblasts grown in ScienCell's 3D spheroid culture preserve their functionality and have elevated expression levels of osteogenic genes, compared to those grown in 2D culture. 3D-HCOSF is a more physiologically relevant in vitro model for studying the bone physiology and the drug effects on bone metabolism