A Collagen-Based 3D Microtissue Platform Preserves Structural, Molecular, and Therapeutic Heterogeneity in Ovarian Cancer

A type I collagen-based 3D microtissue model preserves ovarian cancer histotype heterogeneity across five cell lines, maintaining distinct architecture, PAX8/WT1/p53 patterns, and treatment responses.

• Why it matters: Conventional 2D culture cannot reproduce native extracellular matrix interactions and tissue organization, limiting representation of biologically diverse ovarian cancer histotypes.
• What they did: Five ovarian cancer cell lines (OVCAR3, SNU119, KURAMOCHI, OVTOKO, SKOV3) were grown long-term in collagen microtissues, assessed by growth-curve analysis, confocal imaging, H&E, IHC, and drug testing with carboplatin, paclitaxel, olaparib, and niraparib versus 2D monolayers.
• The result: Despite the shared collagen environment, models formed distinct 3D architectures (papillary-like HGSC for OVCAR3/KURAMOCHI/SNU119; surface-associated patterns for OVTOKO/SKOV3) with preserved histotype-associated PAX8, WT1, and p53 expression, and 3D generally maintained greater viability after treatment than 2D.