Development of an In-Vitro Model of Colitis
Abstract
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), is characterized by chronic inflammation of the gut. A strategy to study IBD in-vitro includes epithelial organoids, but this approach does not permit studying epithelial-stromal interactions. In contrast, Air-Liquid Interface (ALI) organoids—whole tissue explants grown in collagen gel exposed to air—potentially contain all intestinal layers. I thus generated colonic ALI organoids from healthy neonatal and adult mice. These organoids encapsulated epithelial and stromal components; however, organoid formation from adult tissue was less efficient than neonatal tissue. Addition of exogenous growth factors to the culture medium increased organoid efficiency from adult tissue while retaining stromal elements. Finally, colonic ALI organoids generated from mice recovering from Dextran Sodium Sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis appeared to contain epithelium and stroma, including immune cells in short-term culture. Thus, the ALI technique holds promise for studying epithelial-stromal interactions in health and disease.