Tiny Human Esophagus Grown in the Lab--Here's Why

[Judi Lynn]

Miniature versions of the organ that guides food to the stomach could help scientists treat a variety of medical ailments.

BY EMILY MULLIN
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Here’s something to digest: Scientists in Cincinnati have grown miniature versions of an esophagus, the organ responsible for guiding your food to your stomach. And in a first, they did it entirely using human stem cells.

Called organoids, these tiny balls of lab-grown tissue resemble a real human esophagus, the researchers report today in the journal Cell Stem Cell. Previously, scientists succeeded in growing all sorts of organoids—stomachs, kidneys, brains, and even an esophagus made using mature patient tissue as the starting material. (Here’s how one team used a spinach leaf to create a mini beating heart.)

These tiny organs-in-a-dish help scientists study how organs develop normally, and they’re used to figure out how these body parts go wrong, giving rise to cancer and other disorders.

“Three-dimensional laboratory models of human esophagus are badly needed, especially since the mouse anatomy is fundamentally different to a human’s,” says Rebecca Fitzgerald, an esophageal cancer researcher at the University of Cambridge who wasn’t involved in the study.

More:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/09/news-human-esophagus-grown-lab-stem-cells-cancer-health/