Stem cell-derived organoids mimic parathyroid tissue

Science and Technology Daily Beijing, October 27 (Intern reporter Zhang Jiaxin) A study published in the journal Stem Cell Reports on the 27th suggests that stem cell-derived parathyroid organoids (PTOs) may pave the way
for future physiological research and drug screening.

This study proved that the parathyroid glands contain stem cells
that can form organoids.
These organoids mimic patients who secrete hormones, express specific markers, and show similar responses
to drugs.

S-Herto Kluyver, co-senior study author and University Medical Center in Groningen in the Netherlands, said this is the world's first time to isolate parathyroid stem cells and maintain them as organoids for a long time in the laboratory, and the new study uses PTO as a new model
for parathyroid disease research.

Parathyroid disease is characterized by alterations in parathyroid hormone secretion, resulting in abnormal
blood calcium concentrations.
Organoids are 3D structures that closely outline tissue structure and cellular composition and are developed from stem cells
.
These models have proven to be very useful for studying tumor behavior and assessing drug response, and provide a platform
for long-term in vitro experiments.

In this study, the researchers set out to build a patient-derived PTO model
representing human parathyroid tissue.
The researchers obtained benign hyperplastic parathyroid tissue from patients who underwent parathyroid
surgery.
They isolated parathyroid stem cells from tissues and examined their potential to
expand and form PTOs.

PTO is similar
to the original tissue in terms of gene and protein expression levels and function.
The researchers found specific parathyroid-targeted tracer uptake
in the PTO.
Together, the results suggest that these organoids mimic the function of
human parathyroid glands.

Despite the lack of a primitive microenvironment including vascular and fluctuating concentrations of extracellular signals, functional tests and tracer experiments have shown that PTO is a very suitable model
similar to functional parathyroid tissue.

In future studies, the researchers plan to transplant these organoids into rats with hypoparathyroidism to study their function in
a living animal model.