For the first time, ‘mini-organs’ have been grown using human stem cells taken from pregnancy.
Researchers say this could lead to advances in prenatal medicine, as human development can be observed in late pregnancy which could help treat and monitor any congenital conditions before birth.
The mini-organs can retain the baby’s biological information, as the researchers explain these complex cell modules, known as organoids, provide a window for scientists to study how organs function both when they’re healthy and diseased.
Now, scientists will be able to monitor foetal development in late pregnancy and model disease progression as well as test a range of new treatments such as congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH).
‘The organoids we created from amniotic fluid cells exhibit many of the functions of the tissues they represent, including gene and protein expression,’ first author Dr Mattia Gerli, at UCL Surgery and Interventional Science, said.
‘They will allow us to study what is happening during development in both health and disease, which is something that hadn’t been possible before.
‘We know so little about late human pregnancy, so it’s incredibly exciting to open up new areas of prenatal medicine.’
Previously, organs came from adult stem cells, which are usually taken from the bone marrow, as there are restrictions for when foetal samples can be gathered – in the UK it’s up to 22 weeks. For some countries, like the US, foetal sampling is illegal.
But this regulation also means that treating congenital diseases has to be done in a limited timeframe, despite there possibly being an option to treat them after this point.
The researchers at UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) extracted live cells that passed into the amniotic fluid from 12 pregnancies which were between the 16th week and the 34th week of pregnancy. They then identified which tissues the stem cells came from.
Lungs, kidneys and intestine stem cells were extracted and used to grow the organoids which had the functional features of these tissue types.
The team then collaborated with researchers from KU Leuven in Belgium and looked at the development of babies with CDH – pre and post-treatment – and without to compare the organoids and study the biological characteristics of each group.
CDH is a disease where organs such as the liver and intestine pass through a hole in the diaphragm. Babies with CDH often have underdeveloped lungs, which causes issues with breathing.
All babies with CDH need surgery.
In the UK, around one in 5,000 babies have CDH, and around seven in 10 babies born with CDH will survive.
The study revealed significant developmental differences between healthy and pre-treatment CDH organoids but they also found the organoids in the post-treatment group were much closer to healthy ones – indicating the treatment’s effectiveness at a cellular level.
‘This is the first time that we’ve been able to make a functional assessment of a child’s congenital condition before birth, which is a huge step forward for prenatal medicine,’ said NIHR Professor Paolo de Coppi, senior author of the study.
‘Diagnosis is normally based on imaging such as ultrasound or MRI and genetic analyses.
‘When we meet families with a prenatal diagnosis, we’re often unable to tell them much about the outcome because each case is different.
‘We’re not claiming that we can do that just yet, but the ability to study functional prenatal organoids is the first step towards being able to offer a more detailed prognosis and, hopefully, provide more effective treatments in future.’
Source: https://metro.co.uk/2024/03/04/mini-organs-grown-stem-cells-first-time-20396034/