A new inexpensive and ethical option for tissue-based studies is in development. An international team of researchers claim to have identified a novel method for growing lung tissue in laboratories. Grown using extracted body tissues integrated with stem cells, quantities of three-dimensional organoid structures complete with cilia hairs on their surfaces have been produced with the goal to model respiratory tracts. This cell culture technology may be utilised in future drug developments, disease treatment trials and even personalised medicine.
“In the future, this uncomplicated method might even allow us to grow the tissue of individual lung patients in the lab, in order to hopefully test in advance whether a therapy is effective or not” – Dr. Peter Walentek, head of the study by scientists at the University of California in San Francisco, USA, in close collaboration with the Freiburg researchers.
Animal models are routinely used for studies such as drug trials. If successful in its development, grown tissue could potentially replace the need for animal models. This would be a leap forward not only in research ethics but in efficiency.
“Growing tissue in its natural three-dimensional form in the lab is an important way to reduce the use of animals in research. This is another reason why this research is so important” – Prof. Dr. Lutz Hein, Dean of the University of Freiburg Faculty of Medicine.
Read the article here:
University of Freiburg. “Lung tissue from the lab.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 March 2022. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220318161425.htm
See the original study publication here:
Carolin A. Boecking, Peter Walentek, Lorna T. Zlock, Dingyuan I. Sun, Paul J. Wolters, Hiroaki Ishikawa, Byung-Ju Jin, Peter M. Haggie, Wallace F. Marshall, Alan S. Verkman, Walter E. Finkbeiner. A simple method to generate human airway epithelial organoids with externally orientated apical membranes. American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, 2022; 322 (3): L420 DOI: 10.1152/ajplung.00536.2020
