Project description:Human brain development involves an orchestrated, massive neural progenitor expansion while a multi-cellular tissue architecture is established. Continuously expanding organoids can be grown directly from multiple somatic tissues, yet to date brain organoids can solely be established from pluripotent stem cells. Here, we show that healthy human fetal brain in vitro self-organizes into organoids (FeBOs), phenocopying aspects of in vivo cellular heterogeneity and complex organization. FeBOs can be expanded over long time periods. FeBO growth requires maintenance of tissue integrity, which ensures production of a tissue-like extracellular matrix (ECM) niche, ultimately endowing FeBO expansion. FeBO lines derived from different areas of the central nervous system (CNS), including dorsal and ventral forebrain, preserve their regional identity and allow to probe aspects of positional identity. Using CRISPR-Cas9, we showcase the generation of syngeneic mutant FeBO lines for the study of brain cancer. Taken together, FeBOs constitute a complementary CNS organoid platform.
Project description:Human brain development involves an orchestrated, massive neural progenitor expansion while a multi-cellular tissue architecture is established. Continuously expanding organoids can be grown directly from multiple somatic tissues, yet to date brain organoids can solely be established from pluripotent stem cells. Here, we show that healthy human fetal brain in vitro self-organizes into organoids (FeBOs), phenocopying aspects of in vivo cellular heterogeneity and complex organization. FeBOs can be expanded over long time periods. FeBO growth requires maintenance of tissue integrity, which ensures production of a tissue-like extracellular matrix (ECM) niche, ultimately endowing FeBO expansion. FeBO lines derived from different areas of the central nervous system (CNS), including dorsal and ventral forebrain, preserve their regional identity and allow to probe aspects of positional identity. Using CRISPR-Cas9, we showcase the generation of syngeneic mutant FeBO lines for the study of brain cancer. Taken together, FeBOs constitute a complementary CNS organoid platform.
Project description:Organoids are self-organizing 3D structures grown from stem cells that recapitulate essential aspects of organ structure and function. Here, we describe a method to establish long-term-expanding human airway organoids from broncho-alveolar resections or lavage material. The pseudostratified airway organoids consist of basal cells, functional multi-ciliated cells, mucus-producing secretory cells, and CC10-secreting club cells. Airway organoids derived from cystic fibrosis (CF) patients allow assessment of CFTR function in an organoid swelling assay. Organoids established from lung cancer resections and metastasis biopsies retain tumor histopathology as well as cancer gene mutations and are amenable to drug screening. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection recapitulates central disease features, dramatically increases organoid cell motility via the non-structural viral NS2 protein, and preferentially recruits neutrophils upon co-culturing. We conclude that human airway organoids represent versatile models for the in vitro study of hereditary, malignant, and infectious pulmonary disease.
Project description:To understand whether the intrinsic capacity of the fetal brain in vitro self-organizes into organoids (FeBOs) to secrete a tissue-like “matrisome” is linked to the maintenance of cell-to-cell organization and integrity, we compared the secretome of intact FeBOs and FeBO-derived neurospheres. We also performed side-by-side comparative proteomic analysis of FeBOs and human fetal brain tissue to investigate if the extracellular matrix (ECM) production in the FeBOs resembled a proper tissue-like ECM niche. Moreover, we also included proteomic analysis of unguided pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-cerebral organoids and PSC-cortical spheroids to understand how the human brain tissue ECM-niche compared not only to the FeBOs but also to PSC-derived 3D brain models.
