Model Method Description
Multicellular spheroid   Spherical aggregate of cells in static or stirred suspension culture
  Spontaneous aggregation Liquid-overlay A small number of cell types forms clusters rather than strict spheroids Cells cultured on the surface of an agarose gel matrix which blocks attachment of the cells
  Microcarrier beads Beads support aggregation of attached dependent cells to form pseudo-spheroids in gyratory and spinner flasks
  Spinner flask Greater quantities of spheroids can be cultivated in suspension than in liquid-overlay cultures
  Gyratory shaker Cell suspensions in Erlenmeyer flasks containing a specific amount of medium are rotated in a gyratory rotation incubator
  Rotary cell culture The low shear environment provides an advantage over static and stirred cultures, allowing cells to aggregate, grow like 3D structure and differentiate
Cellular multilayer   Layers of cells cultured on top of a porous membrane
Scaffoldbased culture   Cells cultured in synthetic 3D-simulating matrices
Hollow-fiber bioreactor   Cells cultured within a network of perfused artificial capillaries
Table 1: Summary of three-dimensional culture models [16,18].