The gold standard assay for radiation response is the clonogenic assay, a normalized colony formation assay (CFA) that can capture a broad range of radiation-induced cell death mechanisms. Traditionally, this assay relies on two-dimensional (2D) cell culture conditions with colonies counted by fixing and staining protocols. While some groups have converted these to three-dimensional (3D) conditions, these models still utilize 2D-like media compositions containing serum that are incompatible with stem-like cell models such as brain tumor initiating cells (BTICs) that form self-aggregating spheroids in neural stem cell media. BTICs are the preferred patient-derived model system for studying glioblastoma (GBM) as they tend to better retain molecular and phenotypic characteristics of the original tumor tissue. As such, it is important that preclinical radiation studies should be adapted to BTIC conditions. In this study, we describe a series of experimental approaches for performing CFA experiments with BTIC cultures. Our results indicate that serum-free clonogenic assays are feasible for combination drug and radiation testing and may better facilitate translatability of preclinical findings.
Keywords: brain tumor initiating cells; clonogenic assay; colony formation assay; glioblastoma; patient-derived cancer cells; radiation sensitivity.