In vitro maturation of intestinal organoids differentiated from wild type and STAT3 knock out human embryonic stem cells

Human intestinal organoids (hIOs) resemble the human intestine physiologically and structurally. We recently present an in vitro maturation technique for generating mature and functional hIOs from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). Here, we investigated the mechanisms of STAT3 for inducing in vitro maturation of hIOs. Using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing, STAT3 knockout (KO) human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines were generated and characterized. By genome-wide microarray analyses, STAT3 KO hIOs showed markedly different profiles from the in vitro matured hIOs and human small intestine and the majority of genes, which are associated with intestinal development and functions, were downregulated by STAT3 KO. This study reveals important signaling pathways for the maturation of hIOs derived from hPSCs. Gene expression profile of hIOs differentiated from WT and STAT3 KO hESCs with or without in vitro maturation, and adult human small intestine (hSI).