VitroGel™ 3D (TheWell Bioscience) is an animal origin-free hydrogel system closely mimicking the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) environment. Cells grown in this 3D hydrogel possess morphologies and cellular behaviours close to their natural state making it ideal for 3D cell culture.
Therefore, VitroGel™ 3D fits perfectly with our “cellphy” offer, providing life scientists with reagents and laboratory services mimicking the physiological environment of the Human body in vitro, for more physiologically relevant experimental data.
You can choose between two:
- VitroGel™ 3D (cat. nr TWG001): an animal origin-free hydrogel system mimicking the natural ECM, ideal option for floating cell lines.
- VitroGel™ 3D-RGD (cat. nr TWG002): RGD peptide modified hydrogel of VitroGel 3D promoting cell attachment and cell-matrix interactions for 3D-culture and 2D-coating (invasion/migration, chemiotaxis…). Best solution for adhesion cell lines.
VitroGel™ 3D – Principle & mechanism of action
VitroGel™ 3D is an animal origin-free polysaccharide hydrogel system.
It has many advantages over conventional systems and matrices:
- Ready-to-use:
The hydrogel system is room temperature stable with neutral pH.
There are no additional reagents or preparation steps. Simply mix the hydrogel solution with cell culture media for an ECM mimicking environment within 15-20 minutes!
After mixing for hydrogel formation, the system can be simply transferred from one container to another by pipetting. 3D cell culture becomes relaxed and enjoyable with this system.
- Transparent:
The hydrogel is transparent and compatible with different imaging systems for cell observation.
Each VitroGel™ 3D (10 mL/vial) is good for 2.5 96-well plates at standard mixing ratio. Downstream analysis can be done with standard protocols and reagents. No additional reagents or equipment are necessary.
- Permeable:
Oxygen, nutrition and other molecules can easily move into/out of the hydrogel system. Great for drug discovery studies!
- More accurate for 3D cell culture:
The morphologies and behaviours of cells grown in VitroGel™ 3D hydrogel system are similar to their natural state, which provides data to bridge in vitro and in vivo studies for many applications. Studies become remarkable with outstanding data!
- Convenient for cell harvesting:
Cell harvesting is made easy. After 3D cell culture, cells can easily be harvested from the hydrogel by using standard centrifuging methods.
- Injectable:
Using the right mixing ratio, the hydrogel becomes injectable for xenograft studies for example.
- Easy-to-use with fast gelation:
Gelation starts immediately right after mixing and becomes stable in 15 min. Cells distribute homogeneously in the hydrogel.
VitroGel™ 3D performances vs. other 3D cell culture methods
Multiple applications on multiple cell types
The VitroGel™ 3D hydrogel system has great flexibility of physical/chemical properties and the hydrogel preparation can also be manipulated to meet different applications. VitroGel 3D is a powerful tool for your cell culture research:
- 3D cell culture:
VitroGel™ 3D can be used for 3D cell culture by simply mixing with cells.
The hydrogel matrix supports cells to grow as 3D colonies over time.
Drugs or other chemical compounds can be added to penetrate into hydrogel system for screening.
- 2D coating (migration / invasion / adhesion):
VitroGel™ 3D can be used to coat the substance that cells grow on.
The different stiffness and texture of the substance might lead to different cell behaviours. Also, as time goes on, cells might move into the hydrogel matrix for invasion/migration study.
- Xenograft studies and other applications:
By mixing the VitroGel™ 3D hydrogel solution and cell suspension (or other ionic solution) in a proper ratio (recommended: 4:1 v/v), an injectable hydrogel can be formed and used for xenograft, drug delivery, bio-printing, microarrays etc…
Additionally, the VitroGel™ 3D hydrogel properties and preparing protocols can be manipulated for different physical/chemical characteristic and gel formation times. The concentration of hydrogel solution can also be adjusted for different hydrogel strengths. Multiple applications can be done with these flexibilities.
VitroGel™ 3D makes it possible to bridge the in vitro and in vivo studies with the same platform system.
Our customers have used this cell culture system for cancer and tumour cell biology, stem cells and tissue engineering, drug discovery and toxicity study and much more.
To know more and order your VitroGel™ 3D
- See the list of cells & cell lines successfully tested on the VitroGel 3D system together with the optimized conditions: VitroGel™ 3D Case Studies
- Access to demonstration videos on YouTube tebubioTV:
- Additional documents you’ll also find of interest:
And finally, here’s where you can order your VitroGel™ 3D Hydrogel or VitroGel™ 3D-RGD for your 3D cell culture experiments.
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