Pirfenidone Attenuates Fibrosis and Neovascularization in 3D Spheroid‐Laden Hydrogel Culture

Description

Scarring and new blood vessel growth drive the joint damage of arthritis, and drug screening for both usually happens in flat cell layers that behave little like real tissue. Abdulhadi and co-authors grew three-dimensional balls of cells inside a soft gel instead. Fibroblasts alone modeled scarring, while vessel cells with muscle cells modeled sprouting. Into these tiny joint-like worlds they added pirfenidone, a drug approved for lung scarring.

The drug slowed both fibroblast spread and vessel sprouting in a dose-dependent way, with the timing of the dose also mattering, and the cells stayed alive under every condition. It could even reverse changes already under way. The authors read the results as evidence that pirfenidone fights both halves of the arthritis process. They present the gel cultures as a more faithful test bed than flat dishes.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13080344