Ultrasonic standing wave systems have previously been used for the generation of 3Dconstructs for a range of cell types. In the present study, we cultured cells from thehuman hepatoma Huh7 cell line in a Bulk Acoustic Wave field and studied their viability,their functions, and their response to the anti-cancer drug, 5 Fluorouracil (5FU). Wefound that cells grown in the acoustofluidic bioreactor (AFB) expressed no reduction inviability up to 6 h of exposure compared to those cultured in a conventional 2D system. Inaddition, constructs created in the AFB and subsequently cultured outside of it hadimproved functionality including higher albumin and urea production than 2D or pelletcultures. The viability of Huh7 cells grown in the ultrasound field to 5FU anti-cancerdrug was comparable to that of cells cultured in the 2D system, showing rapid diffusioninto the aggregate core. We have shown that AFB formed 3D cell constructs have improvedfunctionality over the conventional 2D monolayer and could be a promising model foranti-cancer drug testing.
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