Microscopy image of the new type of organoid created by Todd McDevitt, Ana Silva, and their colleagues in which heart tissue (red, purple, and orange masses) and gut tissue (blue and green masses) are growing together. Captured by Ana Silva. Image courtesy of Gladstone Institutes.

Scientists at Gladstone Institutes have discovered how to grow afirst-of-its-kindorganoida three-dimensional, organ-like cluster of cellsthat mimicshow gut and heart tissues arise cooperatively from stem cells.

The study was supported bya grantfrom CIRMand the GladstoneBioFulcrumHeart Failure Research Program.

Gladstone Senior InvestigatorTodd McDevitt, PhDsaid this first-of-its-kind organoid could serve as a new tool for laboratory researchandimprove our understanding of how developing organs and tissues cooperate and instruct each other.

McDevitts team creates heart organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells, coaxing them into becoming heart cells by growing them in various cocktails of nutrients and other naturally occurring substances.In this case, the scientists tried a different cocktailto potentiallyallow a greater variety of heart cells to form.

To their surprise, they found thatthe new cocktailled to organoids that contained not only heart, but also gut cells.

We were intrigued because organoids normally develop into a single type of tissuefor example, heart tissue only, says Ana Silva, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in the McDevitt Lab and first author of the new study. Here, we had both heart and gut tissues growing together in a controlled manner, much as they would in a normal embryo.

The researchersalso found that compared to conventional heart organoids, the new organoids resulted in much more complex and mature heart structuresincluding some resembling more mature-like blood vessels.

These organoids offer a promising new look into the relationshipbetween developing tissues, which has so far relied on growing single-tissue organoids separately and then attempting to combine them.Not only that,the organoids could help clarify how the process of human development can go wrongand provide insight on congenital disorderslikechronic atrial and intestinal dysrhythmiasthat are known to affect both heart and gut development.

Once it became clear that the presence of the gut tissue contributed to the maturity of the heart tissue, we realized we had arrived at something new and special, says McDevitt.

Read the official release about this study onGladstones website.

The study findings are published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

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