Murphy Shannon E, Sullivan-Weiss Amanda C, Sirois Chen H, Rubakhin Stanislav S, Kong Hyunjoon, Gillette Martha U, Sweedler Jonathan V
Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.
Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.
ACS Chem Neurosci. 2025 Jan 1;16(1):30-39. doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.4c00625. Epub 2024 Dec 18.
Organoids are multicellular structures formed from populations of individual cells allowing modeling of structural and functional aspects of organs and tissues in normal and diseased states. They offer unique opportunities to model and treat disease. Using a mouse embryonic stem cell line, we have cultured organoids that express markers of spinal cord motor neurons as well as motor neurons found within the peripheral nervous system. The morphology and select neurotransmitter content of the organoids and spinal cord explants were compared at different developmental time points. We found indications of maturation in the organoids over time, mirrored by similar trends in the spinal cord explants. Although the organoids contained the same neurotransmitters as the spinal cord explants, the developmental changes of these neurotransmitter levels were less marked in organoids. Given these differences, further work is required to optimize organoid growth conditions to better reproduce models when using organoids to study development.
类器官是由单个细胞群体形成的多细胞结构，能够模拟正常和患病状态下器官和组织的结构及功能方面。它们为疾病建模和治疗提供了独特的机会。利用小鼠胚胎干细胞系，我们培养出了表达脊髓运动神经元以及外周神经系统中发现的运动神经元标志物的类器官。在不同发育时间点比较了类器官和脊髓外植体的形态以及特定神经递质含量。我们发现随着时间推移类器官有成熟的迹象，脊髓外植体也呈现出类似趋势。尽管类器官所含神经递质与脊髓外植体相同，但这些神经递质水平的发育变化在类器官中不太明显。鉴于这些差异，在使用类器官研究发育时，需要进一步开展工作来优化类器官生长条件，以更好地重现模型。
