Comparison of Agar and Agarose Culture Methods for Human Tumor Stem Cell Assay of Gynecologic Tumors

Abstract

The human tumor stem cell assay (HTSCA) has broad research applications in the field of cell biology as well as in clinical chemotherapy. A prospective clinical trial for improvement of the in vitro growth rate of gynecologic cancers was done between agar and agarose culture methods. Specimens from 27 gynecologic tumors were disaggregated by mechanical and enzymatic methods and assayed in soft agar and agarose culture matrix. 9 of 27 tumors grew in the agar system yielding a cloning success rate of 33.3%. Of 27 specimens, 17 have shown colony growth in the agarose culture matrix showing a cloning success rate of 63.0%. Cloning efficiency in agarose improved approximately 2-fold as compared with that in agar. The development of a soft agarose assay for gynecologic tumor cells will provide a possibility of an in vitro technique for predicting in vivo response to anticancer drugs.