Mogelijke toepassingen van organoïden in de geneeskunde

With the development of organoids as three-dimensional model organs it is now possible to mimic the growth of human organs in a culture dish. As these model organs can be generated from patients’ (diseased) tissue and capture the (genetic) properties thereof, they are more representative disease models than cell lines and animal models. The use of organoids in pathophysiological research has already increased our understanding of many human diseases. Furthermore, organoids are used for patient-specific drug tests for cystic fibrosis, and this will soon be possible for other genetic diseases. Also, transplantation of (own genetically corrected) organoids could become a new treatment option. To fully employ the potential of organoids in medicine, cultures need to be standardized and further optimized for better organ/disease representation. With this, organoids hold the promise to quickly revolutionize personalized and regenerative medicine.

Conflict of interest and financial support: potential conflicts of interest have been reported for this article. ICMJE forms provided by the authors are available online along with the full text of this article.