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REGENERATIVE MEDICINE

Linking human intestinal scaffolds and organoids to combat intestinal failure

Nature Medicine volume 26, pages 1517–1518 (2020)Cite this article

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Combining organoids and decellularized intestinal scaffolds generates durable hybrid intestines that will open up new avenues for the regenerative treatment of patients with intestinal failure.

The functions of the small intestine include the digestion of ingested foods into absorbable nutrients, selective absorption, acting as a barrier against gut microbes, the metabolism of toxic xenobiotics, and the transportation of absorbed substances to the liver. Certain medical conditions, such as ischemia, Crohn’s disease and necrotizing enterocolitis, require surgical removal of a large portion the small intestine, but the remaining intestine usually has an extraordinarily rich reserve capacity to meet the minimal demand of intestinal functions. Nevertheless, massive resection of the small intestine that exceeds its reserve capacity results in irreversible intestinal failure (IF), which is a pernicious condition accompanied by diarrhea, dehydration and malnutrition. In this issue of Nature Medicine, Meran et al. report their endeavor to create hybrid small-intestine grafts by integrating pediatric patient–derived intestinal organoids that were propagated from small biopsy samples into intestinal scaffolds1. Such an approach could combat IF in the future.

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Fig. 1: Major challenges for the development of regenerative medicine for IF1.

References

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Organoid Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Masayuki Fujii, Shinya Sugimoto & Toshiro Sato

Authors
  1. Masayuki Fujii
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  2. Shinya Sugimoto
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  3. Toshiro Sato
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Correspondence to Toshiro Sato.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Fujii, M., Sugimoto, S. & Sato, T. Linking human intestinal scaffolds and organoids to combat intestinal failure. Nat Med 26, 1517–1518 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1096-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1096-9

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