FROM ORGAN CULTURE TO THE NEW 3D ORGANOTYPIC CULTURE SYSTEMS: CONCEPTUAL PATHWAYS

Tissue culture, or explantation technique, deeply renewed the experimental method in biology and medicine and the style of observation of life-sustaining processes in multicellular organisms. Lately, the historiography of tissue culture has focused mostly on cell culture, because of its crucial role in the molecularization of biology. The recent revival of 3D organotypic culture, driven by the synergy between tissue microengineering, cell and stem cell biology, fosters a reappraisal of the conceptual, and not only technical, legacy of the older organotypic experimental tradition within the long history of the tissue culture community. Crucial in this respect is the emergence about the 1950s of the notion of microenvironment, which has lately become a cornerstone of the "three-dimensional thinking" paradigm promoted by the new generation of organ culturists committed to a multilevel extension of Systems Biology research.