A defined collagen substrate and nutrient diffusion gradient culture system allows human colon cancer cells to assume a more differentiated phenotype.

A culture system is presented in which a biologically more relevant substrate in the form of a collagen membrane and a biologically more relevant diffusion gradient system for nutrient delivery to the cells are provided. Five established human colon cancer cell lines (Caco-2, DLD-1, Widr, HCT 116 and HCT 8) were cultured in this system and three of them showed increased differentiation compared with the same cells cultured on the usual cell culture substrates of plastic and glass and with cells grown in an anchorage-independent manner. Caco-2 cells grow on plastic as a monolayer of large pleomorphic cells with scant mucin production. When cultured in a gradient diffusion system in a sandwich of type I/IV collagen the Caco-2 cells showed the highest degree of morphological and biochemical differentiation as evidenced by cellular alignment, glandular formation and mucin production. Similarly DLD-1 cells exhibited the greatest degree of morphological and biochemical differentiation in a gradient system in a type I/IV collagen sandwich. HCT 116 and HCT 8 cells, however, showed little change in differentiation phenotype under any of the 11 culture conditions tested. Widr cells grew in a type I/IV collagen sandwich in a gradient diffusion system as multilayered sheets of cells with intercellular spaces, suggestive of a moderate increase in differentiation phenotype. As judged by morphology and mucin production a range of differentiation capacities is exhibited by the five cell lines tested under the optimal differentiating culture conditions, with the order from most able to differentiate to least able to differentiate being Caco-2 > or = DLD-1 > or = Widr > HCT 116 > or = HCT 8.