Coculture of Ovarian Cells Using Porous Tissue Culture Inserts

Interactions between epithelial and stromal cells are critical to the development and maintenance of tissue development. Some of these interactions can be modeled using coculture systems. Published studies have described experiments in which ovarian carcinoma cells were cultured separately from fibroblasts but could interact (1 ,2 ) and also where the two populations have been mixed and cultured together (3 ,4 ). These studies have investigated the paracrine regulation that carcinoma cells can exert on tenascin secretion from fibroblast cells (1 ) and the effects that endothelins secreted by carcinoma cells can have on both the carcinoma and fibroblast cells (2 ). Ovarian cancer cells have been shown to regulate the production of the matrix metalloprotease MMP-9 in monocytes (3 ) and enhance release of MMP-2 from fibroblasts (4 ). The cells can be cocultured as a mixture of two (or more) populations or kept physically separate by the use of special porous tissue culture inserts. These inserts provide a means of investigating contact-independent modulation of cell behavior. The inserts have a high density of pores to allow diffusion of soluble factors.