SpheroTribe provides a simple toolkit to generate consistent and robust 3D cell structures (spheroids, organoids) without restriction of cell type. Simply dilute the SpheroTribe solution into your culture medium of choice, watch your cells turn into uniformly sized 3D spheroids and collect them for your downstream assays.

Once diluted in your culture medium of choice, our concentrated polymer-based solution increases the medium viscosity favouring cell-cell contacts. SpheroTribe offers a simple method to generate homogeneous 3D cell structures with increased control over their size and shape, which can be easily handled and washed for downstream experiments. 

SpheroTribe is particularly useful to boost aggregation when working with challenging cells, minimize variability between samples and improve the consistency of your migration/invasion assays, immunostaining, drug screening or in vivo implantation experiments.

 

Kit description of SpheroTribe

In addition to the SpheroTribe solution, the full kit also includes U-bottom plates and wide-opening tips so you have everything you need to get started with your 3D cell culture experiments. 

25mL kit (960 spheroids):
- 25mL of 5X methylcellulose solution 
- 10x U-bottom 96-well plates
- 2x racks of 96 pipette tips (200µL) with a large opening 

2,5mL kit (96 spheroids):
- 2.5mL of 5X methylcellulose solution 
- 1x U-bottom 96-well plate
- 20 pipette tips (200µL) with a large opening 

Storage recommendation for the methylcellulose solution:
4°C for (at least) 10 months.





 

Applications of SpheroTribe:

So far, SpheroTribe has been successfully used for spheroid/organoid formation with the following cell types: 
Patient-derived stem-like glioblastoma cells (GB P3, BL13), human glioblastoma cell lines (U87 & T98G), HeLa, human vaginal mucosal melanoma (HMV-II), human primary colorectal cancer cells, human colorectal cancer cells (HT-29 & HCT-116), human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB 231), human induced pluripotent stem cells, monkey kidney fibroblast-like cell line (COS-7), primary neurons from rat embryos (E18) & murine melanoma cells (B16F10).

Experimental assays: 
Once spheroids have grown to your desired size, you can use them for any kind of assay according to your regular workflow. The SpheroTribe solution can be readily washed off, leaving a spheroid available for other tests at any stage of your protocol. 

Example of in situ assays you can perform directly on the U-bottom plate supplied: 

• Live imaging
• Growth/proliferation studies
• Toxicity studies

Examples of downstream assays that might require transferring spheroids to other vessels:

• Invasion & migration assays
• Immunostaining
• Biochemical assays
• Immune infiltration assays
• In vivo implantation

For more guidance on downstream assays, check out our FAQ section containing useful tips & example protocols.  

Results：

Uniform patient-derived glioblastoma spheroids generated using the SpheroTribe kit and visible by the naked eye after 4 days of culture 



 SpheroTribe improves the formation of unique & circular human glioblastoma spheroids  



 

Immune infiltration of B16F10 spheroids after immune checkpoint blockade

Spheroid forming and invasion potentials of CMV-elicited glioblastoma cells 

Assessing anti-cancer treatment effects on colorectal cancer spheroid migration using SpheroTribe

SpheroTribe promotes and maintains cell aggregation in HeLa cells