Wang Xiaocheng, He Jiaxin, Zhang Qiang, He Juan, Wang Qingwen
Department of Rheumatism and Immunology, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, 518036, China.
Institute of Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases, Shenzhen Peking University-The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Medical Center, Shenzhen, 518036, China.
Mater Today Bio. 2025 Jan 24;31:101492. doi: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2025.101492. eCollection 2025 Apr.
The development and exploration of highly effective drugs for rheumatoid arthritis remains an urgent necessity. However, current disease research models are no longer sufficient to meet the rapid development of high-throughput drug screening. In this study, bacterial cellulose simulating the structure of extracellular matrix was used as a 3D culture platform, and THP-1-derived M1 macrophages, representing the inflammatory component, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), simulating the vascular component, and rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RA-FLSs), embodying the synovial pathology, were co-cultured to simulate the pathological microenvironment in RA synovial tissues, and synovial organoids were constructed. Under three-dimensional (3D) culture conditions, there was a notable upregulation of fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4) in polarized macrophages, and an enhancement of pathological phenotypes in HUVECs and RA-FLSs, mediated through the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, including cell proliferation, migration, invasion and vascularization. Compared to planar cultures and 2D co-cultures, 3D synovial organoids not only exhibit a broader range of transcriptomic features characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis but also demonstrate increased drug resistance, likely due to the more complex and physiologically relevant cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions present in 3D environments. This model offers a promising path for personalized treatment, accelerating precision medicine in rheumatology.
开发和探索治疗类风湿性关节炎的高效药物仍然是当务之急。然而,当前的疾病研究模型已不足以满足高通量药物筛选的快速发展。在本研究中,模拟细胞外基质结构的细菌纤维素被用作三维培养平台,将代表炎症成分的THP-1衍生的M1巨噬细胞、模拟血管成分的人脐静脉内皮细胞(HUVECs)以及体现滑膜病理的类风湿性关节炎成纤维细胞样滑膜细胞(RA-FLSs)共培养,以模拟类风湿性关节炎滑膜组织中的病理微环境,并构建滑膜类器官。在三维(3D)培养条件下,极化巨噬细胞中脂肪酸结合蛋白4(FABP4)显著上调,HUVECs和RA-FLSs的病理表型增强,这是通过PI3K/AKT信号通路介导的,包括细胞增殖、迁移、侵袭和血管生成。与平面培养和二维共培养相比,三维滑膜类器官不仅表现出更广泛的类风湿性关节炎特征转录组学特征,而且还表现出耐药性增加,这可能是由于三维环境中存在更复杂且与生理相关的细胞-细胞和细胞-基质相互作用。该模型为个性化治疗提供了一条有前景的途径,加速了风湿病学的精准医疗。