Intestinal Organoids as a Model for Bacterial Infection and Innate Immune Responses

Recently, intestinal organoid cultures have been employed as a new experimental model of the intestinal epithelium. By isolating and cultivating intestinal stem cells from the intestinal crypts of conventional or transgenic mice, or from human patient biopsies; primary epithelial cell cultures can be established to model the epithelium from either the small intestine or colon. These resultant organoid cultures include many of the cell types normally found in the intestinal epithelium, including enterocytes, goblet cells, Paneth cells and enteroendocrine cells. Furthermore, the resultant epithelium polarizes and forms a crypt structure similar to the in vivo intestinal epithelium.

In our research, we have evaluated these organoid cultures as a model for infection and innate immunity. We have employed them as a model of infection and cell invasion for the common enteric pathogen Campylobacter jejuni. Additionally, we have tested the response of these cells to pro-inflammatory stimuli ranging from innate receptor ligands and cytokines, to bacterial factors to test their responses to stimuli relative to their in vivo counterparts. In conclusion, this novel technique of primary epithelial cell culture, promises new methods for the study of infection and innate immunity.