查看文章

The interrelationship among external O2 and glucose supply, oxygenation status, oxygen consumption rates and cellular viability in tumour microregions was studied using the multicellular spheroid model. For chronic exposure to various supply conditions multicellular EMT6/Ro spheroids were cultured in stirred media equilibrated either with 20%(v/v) or 5%(v/v) oxygen and containing four different glucose concentrations ranging from 0.8 mM to 16.5 mM. Spheroids were investigated using histology and O2-sensitive microelectrodes for measuring oxygen tension (PO2) values. A chronic decrease of the glucose concentration in the medium is associated with a substantial reduction in the thickness of the viable rim of cells and with a persistent increase in the cellular respiration rate. In general, both viable rim size and respiration are decreased through restriction of O2 supply during spheroid growth at a given …