Multicellular-mediated resistance to cisplatin and taxol in human ovarian cancer SK-OV-3IP1 multicellular aggregates

Objective: To investigate the chemosensitivity ofovarian cancer SK-OV-3ip1 multicellular aggregates (MCA) to cisplatin and taxol and to explore the possiblemechanisms. Methods: Liquid overlay system was employed to obtain MCA. We detected the resistance using trypan blue exclusion testing, clonogenic assay, cell cycle profiles and apoptosis with flow cytometry (FCM). Results: Aftercisplatin exposure, MCA cells showed nearly equal cellviability with monolayer cells (P=0.05). After 40mM cisplatin exposure for 12 h, no clone (50 cells) was formed, but more viable cells attached to the bottom of 24-well plate in MCA group than monolayer. Furthermore, apoptosis rate and cell cycle profiles with FCM had no significant change between MCA and monolayer cells. After taxol exposure, however, trypan blue exclusion testing demonstrated higher cell viability in MCA cells (P=0.003) and higher cloneformation rate in 100-cell group than monolayer cells(0.01