Expression profiling of MCF10A cells in 2D and 3D culture

In these microarray experiments, we characterize the gene expression of mammary epithelial cells (MCF10A cells) grown in either a traditional monolayer cell culture setting (2D) or on Matrigel, which induces single MCF10A cells to form organized acinar structures (3D). Morphogenesis of mammary epithelial cells into organized acinar structures in vitro is accompanied by widespread changes in gene expression patterns, including a substantial decrease in expression of Myc. The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of morphogenesis and organization on gene expression with respect to changes in overall gene expression and Myc target gene expression. MCF10A cells were cultured in 2D for either 2 or 5 days (3 biological replicates each) or in 3D for 8 or 16 days (3 or 5 biological replicates, respectively)