Generation of mesenchyme free intestinal organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells

Abstract

AbstractEfficient generation of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived human intestinal organoids (HIOs) would facilitate the development of in vitro models for a variety of diseases that affect the gastrointestinal tract, such as inflammatory bowel disease or Cystic Fibrosis. Here, we report a directed differentiation protocol for the generation of mesenchyme-free HIOs that can be primed towards more colonic or proximal intestinal lineages in serum-free defined conditions. Using aCDX2eGFPiPSC knock-in reporter line to track the emergence of hindgut progenitors, we follow the kinetics ofCDX2expression throughout directed differentiation, enabling the purification of intestinal progenitors and robust generation of mesenchyme-free organoids expressing characteristic markers of small intestinal or colonic epithelium. We employ HIOs generated in this way to measureCFTRfunction using cystic fibrosis patient-derived iPSC lines before and after correction of theCFTRmutation, demonstrating their future potential for disease modeling and therapeutic screening applications.