Lab-Grown Organs: A New Frontier in Transplantation Medicine
For patients with end-stage diseases facing a diagnosis of organ failure, organ transplantation is often the only available solution. Sadly, securing an organ is easier said than done. Not only must there be a match between donor and recipient, but there is also a shortage of organs available, mainly because not all potential donors opt to donate. To make matters worse, not all countries offer life-saving transplant surgeries.
A shortage in organ availability compounded by a global disparity in access to transplantation leaves patients in a precarious state of anticipation as their conditions worsen without viable treatment options.
Lab-grown organoids
In the laboratory, cells have been cultivated “in vitro” for decades. For instance, cancer cells that were once obtained from a patient in the 1950s can still be found in the lab and used in research. More recently, efforts[1] have been made to cultivate organs in the laboratory.
The lab-grown organs are called “organoids”. This term refers to cells that are cultivated in a specific three-dimensional (3D) setting. This process results in the formation of small clusters of cells exhibiting some characteristics found in the organs inside our bodies, such as self-organization and differentiation into functional cell types.
Organoids can be generated from special cells, known as stem cells, which possess the ability to turn into different cell types, including skin, muscle, or nerve cells. Stem cells are placed on a plate and exposed to conditions that mimic the natural environment of the desired organoid. Think of it as creating a miniature simulated world for these cells, carefully adjusting factors like nutrient types and signaling cues to steer stem cells through a journey closely resembling the natural development of the chosen organ.
It’s akin to providing the cells with a recipe to follow. As they do so, they transform into structures that resemble and function similarly to the real organ of interest. These organoids become miniature models that help us understand how organs grow and work. They allow scientists to study them up close, explore diseases, and even test potential treatments.
From the lab to the clinic
Organoids have been successfully generated for various organs such as the brain, intestine, lung, and liver. At the moment, these organoids are grown in the lab and used primarily for drug safety and efficacy testing. Yet, simpler models have been successfully grown into fully-functioning organs, including blood cells, lungs, and bladders. For example, lab-grown blood cells have been used in transfusions for the first time, and fully-grown bladders have been implanted into patients. Ultimately, these advancements in organoid research hold the potential to revolutionize healthcare by providing personalized treatment options and reducing the global disparity in access to life-saving transplant surgeries.
The issue with complex organs
Organoids are miniaturized versions of organs. For the blood cells of the bladder, what we can create in the lab is sufficient for use in patients. However, more complex organs require diverse cell types and larger sizes for their proper function. As organoids grow, the demand for nutrients and oxygen increases, which can lead to limitations in their maturation and function. An emerging alternative to these problems is 3D organ printing. Organ bioprinting involves using 3D-printing technologies to construct bioartificial organs layer by layer, ideally imitating their natural counterparts. Many challenges still exist to make bioprinting organs an alternative to transplants, yet the field is advancing to make this a reality as soon as possible.
Companies advancing the business of growing organs
Numerous companies are actively investing in the development of organoids and lab-grown organs, recognizing their potential to revolutionize healthcare and address the global shortage of transplant organs. Among these are STEMCELL Technologies Inc., Hubrecht Organoid Technology, DefiniGEN, Cellesce Ltd, Tishcon Corp., OcellO B.V., Merck KGaA (MRK), 3Dnamics Inc., R&D Systems, Inc., and Dynomics Inc., leveraging various technologies such as 3D printing and organ-on-a-chip systems. While lab-grown bladders are already a success case, it remains difficult to estimate when lab-made alternatives will be available for other organs.
Most excitingly, both small-scale labs and major companies are heavily invested in turning this vision into a reality over the next few decades.
References
[1] https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1002/embr.201438528
Author: Ema Flores Díaz
This story was originally published on Pubweave.
