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Review
. 2023 Jan 13:13:1083017.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.1083017. eCollection 2022.

Open questions in human lung organoid research

Tessa Hughes  1 , Krijn K Dijkstra  2   3 , Emma L Rawlins  1 , Robert E Hynds  4   5   3
Affiliations
Review

Open questions in human lung organoid research

Tessa Hughes et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Organoids have become a prominent model system in pulmonary research. The ability to establish organoid cultures directly from patient tissue has expanded the repertoire of physiologically relevant preclinical model systems. In addition to their derivation from adult lung stem/progenitor cells, lung organoids can be derived from fetal tissue or induced pluripotent stem cells to fill a critical gap in modelling pulmonary development in vitro. Recent years have seen important progress in the characterisation and refinement of organoid culture systems. Here, we address several open questions in the field, including how closely organoids recapitulate the tissue of origin, how well organoids recapitulate patient cohorts, and how well organoids capture diversity within a patient. We advocate deeper characterisation of models using single cell technologies, generation of more diverse organoid biobanks and further standardisation of culture media.

Keywords: 3D cell culture; epithelial cells; in vitro models; lung stem cells; respiratory biology.

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Conflict of interest statement

KD provides consultancy services to Achilles Therapeutics. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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