Human bile cholangiocyte organoids originate from the extrahepatic bile duct and can repair bile duct scaffolds in vitro

Cholangiocyte organoids provide a powerful tool for characterizing bile duct epithelium and expanding cholangiocytes for tissue engineering purposes. However, this involves invasively obtained tissue-biopsies via surgery which is not preferential and limits the patient-specific capacities of these cultures. To overcome this, organoid culture were initiated from minimal invasive bile-samples obtained during routine clinical procedures. Characterization revealed that these bile-cholangiocyte organoids originate from the extrahepatic bile duct and are capable to repopulate human extrahepatic bile duct scaffolds. With this, bile duct tissue engineering as well as personalized disease modelling is in sight.

胆管类器官（Cholangiocyte organoids）为表征胆管上皮细胞、面向组织工程需求扩增胆管细胞提供了强有力的研究工具。然而，该技术此前需通过外科手术获取侵入性组织活检样本，该方式并不受临床青睐，同时也限制了这类培养体系的患者特异性应用潜力。为破解这一难题，研究人员从常规临床操作中获取的微创胆汁样本中启动了类器官培养体系。表征分析结果表明，这类胆汁源性胆管类器官源自肝外胆管，且可在人类肝外胆管支架中完成再定植。借此，胆管组织工程与个性化疾病建模已触手可及。