HACAT SPHEROID AND HUMAN FIBROBLAST: STRATEGIES TO REDUCE FETAL BOVINE SERUM IN CELL CULTURE

• Grant number: 23/08593-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2023
• End date: October 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Pharmacy - Toxicological Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Patricia Santos Lopes
• Grantee: Lohanna Luciyanla Kakuda
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The use of animals in tests has been the subject of social and scientific discussion for centuries and has intensified in recent years, both due to ethical issues and technical disadvantages, such as the lack of animal and human physiological similarity and insufficient reproducibility. The discussion culminated in the banning of this practice in tests for the production of cosmetics in several countries, leading to the fact of replacement by alternative methods, which seek to replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in tests, making it necessary to research and invest in this area. However, it is still common to use animal products in some alternative methods, such as Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) in in vitro cell cultures. FBS entails dilemmas due to the way it is obtained, and technical concerns, due to the chance of variation in the composition from batch to batch, interfering with the reproducibility of the tests, contamination, and many others. Furthermore, with the expansion of alternative methods, their use tends to increase. Therefore, there is a worldwide effort to remove it from the cell culture medium or reduce it. Another emerging method is the transition from 2D to 3D culture tests, such as spheroids, bioprinters, organ-on-a-chip, among others. The 3D model provides a better resemblance to in vivo conditions, having a better chance of replacing animal testing. In this context, this project aims to evaluate the formation of spheroids by the self-assembly mode in comparison with the use of NanoShuttle, gradually decreasing the Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) from 10%, to 7.5%, 5%, 2.5% and without FBS. The combination of both techniques has a greater chance of replacing the use of animals in research and increasing the reproducibility of in vitro tests.