The ideal organoid
A perfect intestinal organoid has been created – a prototype of a real organ
Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+
The organoid created in the laboratory anatomically and functionally repeats the real intestine. This is the most advanced prototype of the intestine created by scientists so far – it produces all the key types of cells present in the human intestine, including rare and specialized ones, and also regenerates when damaged. The development opens up new opportunities in drug testing and future transplantation of a full-fledged organ grown artificially.
A group of European researchers has developed an intestinal organoid that is closest in structure and function to human intestinal tissue. The biological complexity and functionality of the tissue created by the new technology is an important step in accelerating the testing of new drugs.
The article by Nikolaev et al., Homeostatic mini-intestines through scaffold-guided organoid morphogenesis is published in the journal Nature, the press release Next-gen organoids grow and function like real tissues is on the website of the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne.
The idea of organoids is to use stem cells to create miniature tissues and organs that behave like real ones.
In addition to drug testing, such technologies may be used in the future to replace damaged tissues and even entire organs.
So far, advances in this field have had significant drawbacks, including the short life span of the organoid, irregular shape and size. Now scientists have found a way to "direct" stem cells in such a way as to form a functional and more viable tissue sample.
Using the example of an intestinal organoid, they used the ability of stem cells to grow and organize along a framework in the form of a tube that mimicked the surfaces of real tissue. In addition to the organoid growth tube, a hydrogel with proteins of the extracellular matrix of the intestine was used.
Such conditions made it possible to create the necessary geometry of the fabric. The cells were distributed over the framework for several hours, forming a continuous layer with characteristic structures. "The stem cells literally knew how to distribute themselves to form functional tissue," the authors emphasized.
At the same time, stem cells not only adapted to the shape of the skeleton, but also produced all the key cell types present in the human intestine, including rare and specialized ones.
The new organoids have shown regenerative properties after damage, as well as the potential for modeling inflammatory processes or interaction with a pathogen. So far, no organoid has provided such opportunities for scientists.
In the longer term, organoids will allow modeling various diseases to understand their nature, and will also be used in tissue engineering.
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