Lung organoids: advances in generation and 3D-visualization

Abstract

The lung is comprised of more than 40 distinct cell types that support a complex 3-dimensional (3D) architecture that is required for efficient lung function. Loss of this proper architecture can accommodate and promote lung disease, highlighting researchers’ growing need to analyze lung structures in detail. Additionally, in vivo cellular and molecular response to chemical and physical signals, along with the recapitulation of gene-expression patterns, can be lost during the transition from complex 3D tissues to 2D cell culture systems. Therefore, technologies that allow for the investigation of lung function under normal and disease states utilizing the entirety of the lung architecture are required to generate a complete understanding of these processes. Airway cell-derived organoids that can recapitulate lung structure and function ex vivo while being amenable to experimental manipulation, have provided a new and exciting model system to investigate lung biology. In this perspective, we discuss emerging technologies for culturing lung-derived organoids, techniques to visualize organoids using high-resolution microscopy and the resulting information extracted from organoids supporting research focused on lung function and diseases.

In focus in HCB

“…Thus, these results extend and confirm the hypothesis that a hormone-effected decrease in epithelial cell polarity is required for the receptivity of the endometrium for embryo implantation. Moreover, the authors demonstrate the great value and utility of using cellular spheroids for 3D tissue models in human reproductive research, as has also been shown recently for other tissues such as lung (Cunniff et al 2021) and diseases such as cancer (Huch and Koo 2015).…”

High-fidelity optical diffraction tomography of live organisms using non-toxic tunable refractive index media

“…The label-free imaging capability of ODT can demonstrate synergetic effects in combination with the use of non-toxic tunable RI media for imaging large biological samples over a long time. Iodixanol has been proven to be biocompatible in cell imaging [21], and the label-free nature of ODT enables long-term monitoring of cells that are implanted into humans [55][56][57]. Given the simple and biocompatible nature of the proposed method, it could potentially be used for the study of developmental biology or regenerative medicine [58,59].…”

Reconstructing the pulmonary niche with stem cells: a lung story

“…The human lung is home to over 40 individual cell types that coordinate to maintain respiratory function [ 83 , 84 ]. Accordingly, communication between these participating cells is often at the heart of major events such as lung organogenesis and pathogenesis.…”