The research groups of the National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo Agriculture University, and Hirosaki University Graduate School have succeeded for the first time in the world in developing a highly functional "mini intestine" that has an immune function in the intestinal tract.It is said that its application to elucidation of the pathophysiology of pediatric intractable enteropathy and drug discovery research will be examined.
The gastrointestinal tract, which connects to the mouth, is the most important internal organ that interacts with foreign substances, and about 70% of the cells of the immune system in the body are present in the intestinal tract.Macrophages, which are naturally immune cells, play an important role in biological defense against various viral and bacterial infections, but are also deeply involved in diseases such as chronic inflammation and autoimmune diseases.Recently, as a human intestinal model, research on three-dimensional tissues (organoids) in miniature organs made from stem cells in vitro is being actively conducted all over the world.However, there have been no reports of organoid models that can observe even the innate immune response.
The "mini intestine" was developed by the National Center for Child Health and Development in 2017, and is a functional three-dimensional intestine derived from human iPS cells that has functions of the human intestine such as absorption / secretion and peristaltic movement.This time, the research group produced monocytes (a type of leukocyte) from the same iPS cells that produce the mini-intestine, transplanted them into the mini-intestine, differentiated them into macrophages, and engrafted them in the mini-intestine.It was shown that the tissue macrophages in this mini-intestine secrete physiologically active substances such as various cytokines and also have a function of phagocytosing Escherichia coli.
This result is an innovative biomodel that can reproduce pathological conditions such as intestinal immune response and inflammatory diseases in vivo by creating a highly functional mini-intestine that can also analyze the innate immune response of the human intestine in vitro. , It is expected to be used for drug discovery research and development.
