Scientists Simulate the Human Gastrointestinal Tract in Mice
upstart writes:
Scientists Simulate the Human GI Tract in Mice:
A team of biologists and pathologists in Ohio has successfully modeled the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract in rodents. By planting tiny balls of human intestinal tissue into the abdomens of mice and allowing those tissues to take root, the scientists have created a working environment in which they can study GI physiology and immunology without human test subjects.
[...] Thanks to pluripotent stem cells' ability to become any bodily cell, the team could "feed" them a specific growth protein until they became intestinal cells. In less than a month, these cells had formed tiny balls of tissue known as organoids.
Next, the team used Busulfan (a common chemotherapy drug) and genetic engineering to suppress the immune systems of their test mice. This would ensure the lab-grown organoids wouldn't be rejected. The scientists transplanted one organoid next to each test mouse's kidneys, then monitored the organoids' growth over the span of 20 weeks. By the end of this period, the organoids had grown to the size of a pea. Better yet, they contained roughly 20 types of human immune cells, mimicking the immune population in the human GI tract.
Journal Reference:
Bouffi, Carine, Wikenheiser-Brokamp, Kathryn A., Chaturvedi, Praneet, et al. In vivo development of immune tissue in human intestinal organoids transplanted into humanized mice [open], Nature Biotechnology (DOI: 10.1038/s41587-022-01558-x)
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