Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Jun 8;12(12):1590.
doi: 10.3390/cells12121590.

Organoids as Innovative Models for Bone and Joint Diseases

Jie Huang  1   2 , Lingqiang Zhang  3 , Aiping Lu  2   4   5 , Chao Liang  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

Organoids as Innovative Models for Bone and Joint Diseases

Jie Huang et al. Cells. .

Abstract

Bone is one of the key components of the musculoskeletal system. Bone and joint disease are the fourth most widespread disease, in addition to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes, which seriously affect people's quality of life. Bone organoids seem to be a great model by which to promote the research method, which further could improve the treatment of bone and joint disease in the future. Here, we introduce the various bone and joint diseases and their biology, and the conditions of organoid culture, comparing the in vitro models among 2D, 3D, and organoids. We summarize the differing potential methods for culturing bone-related organoids from pluripotent stem cells, adult stem cells, or progenitor cells, and discuss the current and promising bone disease organoids for drug screening and precision medicine. Lastly, we discuss the challenges and difficulties encountered in the application of bone organoids and look to the future in order to present potential methods via which bone organoids might advance organoid construction and application.

Keywords: bone organoids; drug screening; joint/bone disease; precision medicine; stem cells.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The 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.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bone and knee joint anatomy. (a) Bone anatomy. Adult bone is composed of cortical bone and trabecular bone. The former, with blood vessels and osteocytes, is a compact bone covering the outer bone surface; the latter, containing bone marrow or fat, constitutes the inner bone. (b) Knee joint anatomy. This joint is generally composed of the joint surface, the joint capsule, and the joint cavity.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overview of establishment of human PSC-derived and ASC-derived organoids. PSC-derived organoids first involve three germ-layer specifications (endoderm, mesoderm, or ectoderm) using different factors. ASC-derived organoid cultures require the isolation of the tissue-specific stem cell population, which need to then be embedded into an ECM with defined, tissue-specific combinations of growth factors to allow propagation. R: reprogramming; hiPSCs: human pluripotent stem cells; hESCs: human embryonic stem cells; ASCs: adult stem cells; ECM: extracellular matrix.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Potential disease modellings in bone organoids.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Farokhi M., Mottaghitalab F., Shokrgozar M.A., Ou K.-L., Mao C., Hosseinkhani H. Importance of dual delivery systems for bone tissue engineering. J. Control. Release. 2016;225:152–169. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2016.01.033. - DOI - PubMed
    1. MacIntosh A.C., Kearns V.R., Crawford A., Hatton P.V. Skeletal tissue engineering using silk biomaterials. J. Tissue Eng. Regen. Med. 2008;2:71–80. doi: 10.1002/term.68. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hofmann S., Hagenmüller H., Koch A.M., Müller R., Vunjak-Novakovic G., Kaplan D.L., Merkle H.P., Meinel L. Control of in vitro tissue-engineered bone-like structures using human mesenchymal stem cells and porous silk scaffolds. Biomaterials. 2007;28:1152–1162. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2006.10.019. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Buck D.W., 2nd, Dumanian G.A. Bone biology and physiology: Part I. The fundamentals. Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 2012;129:1314–1320. doi: 10.1097/PRS.0b013e31824eca94. - DOI - PubMed
    1. MacConaill M.A. Joint. Encyclopedia Britannica; Chicago, IL, USA: 2020.

Publication types