The recent spurt in organoid research has been welcomed with immense enthusiasm and much anticipation from the common public and the scientific community. The Organoid technology is instrumental in opening up a host of possibilities and avenues for groundbreaking scientific discovery in the field of developmental biology and even in translational research. However, experts are still not convinced if organoids could be living up to the challenges. Several noted scientists have highlighted their research findings by showing that organoid technology holds a tremendous amount of promise and gradually this promise is being realized. However, the organoid technology could be encountering some challenges. Let us explore such challenges.
What Are Organoids?
As per https://en.wikipedia.org, an organoid is supposed to be a simplified and miniaturized version of a specific organ generated in vitro in 3D that demonstrates realistic micro-anatomy. Organoids are supposed to be 3D or three-dimensional cell cultures that are known for mimicking tissue architecture. Organoid technology has been acclaimed and acknowledged as the Method of 2017 thanks to its ever-growing importance in diverse fields of research. Organoids have been utilized effectively in drug testing that has broadened the target market for three-dimensional cell cultures. These models have been instrumental in demonstrating the capability of cells in differentiating and self-organizing. Researchers feel that organoids are quite easy to grow. Moreover, they could be coming up with splendid pictures. They could be observed by utilizing cellular, molecular, and also, imaging techniques. Learn more by browsing organoidresearch.com. There are certain amazing advantages of utilizing organoids; however, sometimes the negatives could be unpublished or overlooked.
An Upgrade over an Average Culture
Organoids are surely an upgrade over the conventional primary cultures that are usually grown in basically tissue culture flasks as simply a monolayer. Organoids are different from these average cultures because here the cells grow very much within the basement membrane gel. Moreover, they would be developing into different three-dimensional shapes: predominantly into hollow or even budding spheres. We know that you have the liberty of selecting or unselecting the cells that are seeded into this specific kind of culture system for demonstrating the patient’s cellular heterogeneity. Even though organoids are used widely today, sometimes they are poorly validated and under-investigated.
Purity & Elimination of Contaminants
Cultures from tissues are bound to contain a blend of different types of cells, for instance, stromal or epithelial. These could have been contaminated already by the neighboring tissues reliant on specifically the sampling technique, for example, prostate tissue could be containing urethral tissue when sampled by the transurethral resection. Similarly, normal cells could end up contaminating tumor tissues. Hence, while using organoids technology, it is of pivotal importance to make sure that the potential contaminants are absent.
Conclusion: Heterogeneity of Organoids
Even though heterogeneity seems to be frequently regarded as an advantage of spheroid cultures, you must also, be aware of its negative aspect. If a drug is being tested for understanding its impact on heterogeneous cell culture, then it should be regarded as an advantage and a positive characteristic. However, while inspecting the drug’s action mechanisms and precisely which cells are actually targeted, utilizing a heterogeneous blend of cells would not be yielding accurate answers. To be on the safe side, it is mandatory to avoid models that are having minimal validation.
