Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, South Korea.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Information and Biotechnology, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, South Korea.
Nat Commun. 2024 Oct 31;15(1):9420. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53073-z.
The application of organoids has been limited by the lack of methods for producing uniformly mature organoids at scale. This study introduces an organoid culture platform, called UniMat, which addresses the challenges of uniformity and maturity simultaneously. UniMat is designed to not only ensure consistent organoid growth but also facilitate an unrestricted supply of soluble factors by a 3D geometrically-engineered, permeable membrane-based platform. Using UniMat, we demonstrate the scalable generation of kidney organoids with enhanced uniformity in both structure and function compared to conventional methods. Notably, kidney organoids within UniMat show improved maturation, showing increased expression of nephron transcripts, more in vivo-like cell-type balance, enhanced vascularization, and better long-term stability. Moreover, UniMat's design offers a more standardized organoid model for disease modeling and drug testing, as demonstrated by polycystic-kidney disease and acute kidney injury modeling. In essence, UniMat presents a valuable platform for organoid technology, with potential applications in organ development, disease modeling, and drug screening.
类器官的应用受到缺乏大规模生成均匀成熟类器官方法的限制。本研究介绍了一种类器官培养平台，称为 UniMat，它同时解决了均匀性和成熟度的挑战。UniMat 的设计不仅确保了类器官的一致生长，还通过 3D 几何工程、可渗透膜基平台促进了可溶性因子的无限制供应。使用 UniMat，我们展示了可扩展的肾类器官的生成，与传统方法相比，在结构和功能上具有更高的均匀性。值得注意的是，UniMat 中的肾类器官表现出更高的成熟度，表现为肾单位转录本的表达增加，更接近体内的细胞类型平衡，增强了血管生成，并且具有更好的长期稳定性。此外，UniMat 的设计为疾病建模和药物测试提供了更标准化的类器官模型，如多囊肾病和急性肾损伤模型。本质上，UniMat 为类器官技术提供了一个有价值的平台，具有在器官发育、疾病建模和药物筛选方面的潜在应用。
