Introduction:
How are we able to explore the traits of diseases? How have we, as a society, been able to develop new medical technologies and treatments? Imagine if we could replicate every single complex cell of a patient’s own tissue. With the study of growing organoids, this dream is slowly becoming a reality.
Organoids:
Throughout the years, scientists have explored ways to create a perfect environment for stem cells (infinitely divisible cells that can produce different copies of themselves) to self-organize according to their genetic instructions, a process known to create organoids. Organoids are small tissue-cultures: produced by growing tissue/cells in an artificial environment – separating them from their original organism. They are three-dimensional, self-organized, and derived from stem cells – creating the ability to reproduce parts of an organism (producing certain types of cells, a certain organ, etc). Organoids (“mini-organs”) come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from less than a hair's width to 5 millimeters. They can resemble as many different tissues and organs as there are in the body (a kidney, lung, liver, brain), which helps produce a detailed visual for scientists to further study organisms' organs – an insight into human development, disease, and drug interaction.
Organoids in Disease Modeling:
But how do organoids work in disease modeling and what exactly is disease modeling? Cellular disease modeling is the type of disease modeling referred to when discussing organoids. It uses in-vitro cell cultures, like organoids, to study the underlying mechanisms of diseases. Organoids are an extremely powerful tool for developing new treatments, as well as studying certain types of diseases (cancer, infectious diseases, neurodegeneration, etc). Cellular disease modeling can manipulate the controlled environment of organoids, utilizing these tissue cultures to test out certain environmental factors, and their effect on cells without causing any harm. One of the most commonly used cellular disease models uses induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can be used to create organoids. Human iPSCs can be derived from different tissues and turned into any specialized cell type – something that is useful when animal models aren’t enough to understand nor further study genetic diseases. This technology, derived from organoids, is extraordinarily valuable to the scientific study of genetic diseases and their toll on society, demonstrating that organoids are a necessary factor to disease modeling which can enable the study of disease mechanisms in a more accurate context (than 2D cell cultures/ animal models).
References
"Organoids." Harvard Stem Cell Institute, https://hsci.harvard.edu/organoids. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.
Adegbola, Stephen, et al. "Advancing Gastrointestinal Research through Organoids Derived from Human Tissue and Stem Cells: A 2023 Update." Frontiers in Medicine, vol. 10, 2023, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10047824/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.
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