Abstract
A method for determining glucose concentration in a three-dimensional tumor spheroid in vitro includes: adding a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-based glucose nanosensor to a co-culture of cancer cells and stromal cells so as to form a first mixture; adding the first mixture into microwells of a polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)-based microwell array chip; subjecting the first mixture in the PDMS-based microwell array chip to incubation at 37°C so as to form the three-dimensional tumor spheroid with the SERS-based glucose nanosensor embedded therein; transferring the three-dimensional tumor spheroid onto a glass slide to allow the three-dimensional tumor spheroid to be mounted thereon; subjecting the three-dimensional tumor spheroid to confocal Raman spectroscopy so as to obtain Raman mapping images of the three-dimensional tumor spheroid; and extracting Raman intensities from the Raman mapping images and mapping the Raman intensities to a calibration curve so as to determine glucose concentration in the three-dimensional tumor spheroid in vitro