Human meibomian gland organoids to study epithelial homeostasis and dysfunction

Meibomian glands (MGs) are holocrine glands that secrete lipids to maintain the homeostasis of ocular surface, and their dysfunction leads to dry eye disease. Herein, we established long-term 3D organoid culture for murine and human MGs, which retained the cell lineages, transcriptomic profile and lipid-producing ability. We performed bulk mRNA-sequencing, single cell RNA sequencing and lipidomic analysis to prove that the meibomian gland organoids we established could closely resemble the key features of parental tissue, facilitating drug development and regenerative medicine for dry eye disease.