Researchers Generate Improved Lung Tissue Organoids

In tissue engineering this is the age of organoids: while the challenge of generating a blood vessel network sufficient to grow large tissue sections is not yet solved, researchers are nonetheless establishing the diverse set of methodologies needed to grow functional organ tissue from a cell sample. The recipe is different for every tissue type, and there are many forms of tissue in the body. The resulting small tissue sections are known as organoids. At this time organoids are largely used to speed up further research, but for some tissue types there is the potential to produce therapies based on transplantation of multiple organoids to patch or augment failing organs. Sadly, that is probably not an option for lung disease due to the highly structured nature of lung tissue, and here the focus is on using organoids to improve the state of research. A number of groups have demonstrated functional lung organoids of increasing sophistication in the past few years, and here is the latest example in this line of research: New lung "organoids" have been created from human pluripotent stem cells. Researchers used the organoids to generate models of human lung diseases in a lab dish, which could be used to advance our understanding of a variety of respiratory diseases. Organoids are 3-D structures containing multiple cell types that look and function like a full-sized organ. By reproducing an organ in a dish, researchers hope to develop better models of human diseases and f...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs