Mini human stomachs grown in laboratory for the first time

TINY functioning human stomachs have been grown in the laboratory for the first time.

US scientists used pluripotent stem cells, which can become any cell type in the body, to create the stomach buds, or organoids and studied infection by bugs that can cause peptic ulcers and cancer.

The tissue provides a new vehicle to fast-track development of drugs as well as a model for the early stages of stomach tumours and analysing obesity-linked diabetes.

It is the first time researchers have produced 3D human embryonic foregut, a promising starting point for generating other early organ tissues such as the lungs and pancreas.

Professor Jim Wells, of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, said: “Until this study, no-one had generated gastric cells from human pluripotent stem cells.

“In addition, we discovered how to promote formation of three dimensional gastric tissue with complex architecture and cellular composition.”

He added that differences between species in the embryonic development and architecture of the adult stomach make mouse models less than ideal for studying human stomach development and disease. There are differences in the anatomy and inner workings between animals and humans, making study of disease difficult.

To create a more realistic model, Prof Wells and colleagues generated human gastric tissue using stem cells as the starting material.

The so-called gastric organoids have a complex 3D structure and contain different cell types with functional characteristics that mirror those seen in the stomach. The organoids are shown to faithfully recapitulate early stages of gastric disease.