Résumé
Background The construction of tissue-engineered corneal endothelium and corneal endothelial cells (CECs) therapy need abundant seed cells,so how to culture a large amount of CECs with high viability and original cell properties is an urgent issue to be solved.Objective This study was to establish three-dimensional spheroid culture of CECs and explore the cellular biological characteristics.Methods Primary rabbit CECs were isolated with trypsin and subcultured.Low attachment and shaking culture was applied to form CECs spheres.Cultured cells were identified under the inverted microscope.The surface features of the cells were examined under the scanning electron microscope.The viability of the cells were assayed by acridine orange (AO) staining and CCK-8 kit.Then CECs spheres were incubated to 6-well plate for 1 week,and immunofluorescence staining was used to identify the expression of zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) and Na+/K+-ATPase in the cells.The cell proliferation value of spheroid culture method was compared with that of regular culture method.Results CECs grew into aggregation after cultured with the hexagonal or polygonal shape and tight connection among the cells.The cells converged into single layer and slabstone-like arrangement 1 week later.Cells migrated out of the CECs sphere and formed an uneven spherical surface.The living cells showed green fluorescence for AO with the survival rate 90％.The absorbance (A450) of the cells was 1.524±0.013 and 1.265 ±0.021 in the spherical culture group and conventional culture group,respectively,showing a significant difference between them (t =-3.436,P=0.010).The positive cells of ZO-1 and Na+/K+-ATPase showed the green fluorescence for FITC on cell membrane and blue fluorescence for DAPI on cell nucleus.Conclusions Spherical culture method maintains a high viability and proliferation ability of the cells and remains phenotype of CECs,which is superior to conventional culture method.This culture method provides better seeding CECs for the establishment of tissue engineering cornea endothelial layer and CECs therapy.