Lung Organoid: Innovative Technology for Respiratory Disease Modelling

Abstract

Introduction: The lungs are a complex organ with various cell types. Many factors can contribute to the damage of the lung epithelial cells, including exposure to air pollutants, cigarette smoke and pathogen. Thus, it is critical to developing suitable human disease models to understand tissue homeostasis mechanisms and pathological alterations in the airways. Three-dimensional organoids made from stem cells have emerged as a new method to model respiratory disorders in vitro. On-going studies show that lung organoids generated from adult lung stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells provide an excellent platform for model lung diseases and drug screening that alleviates respiratory diseases. Method: MEDLINE/PubMed and Google databases were used for the selection of literature. The keywords used were lung organoids, respiratory disease models, stem/progenitor cells, induced pluripotent stem cells. Results: Lung organoids can be derived from human pluripotent stem cells and adult stem cells. The microenvironment for culture and starting cell types are essential in generating lung organoids. For creating 3D lung organoids, an extracellular matrix component such as matrigel, feeder cells, and lung fibroblast is essential to provide a cocktail of growth factors that significantly contribute to the development of lung organoid culture. Conclusion: From this perspective, we summarise the recent technology of cultivating lung organoids and their potential applications to study respiratory diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis infection, and respiratory virus infection. We also discuss challenges that need to be overcome to apply lung organoids as respiratory disease models.KeywordsLung organoidsRespiratory disease modelsStem/progenitor cellsInduced pluripotent stem cells