Volume-constrained microcontainers enable myoepithelial functional differentiation in highly parallel mammary organoid culture.

ABSTRACT: A long-standing constraint on organoid culture is the need to add exogenous substances to provide hydrogel matrix, which limits the study of fully human or fully native organoids. This paper introduces an approach to culture reconstituted mammary organoids without the impediment of exogenous matrix. We enclose organoids in nanoliter-scale, topologically enclosed, fluid compartments surrounded by agar. Organoids cultured in these "microcontainers" appear to secrete enough extracellular matrix to yield a self-sufficient microenvironment without exogenous supplements. In microcontainers, mammary organoids exhibit contractility and a high-level, physiological, myoepithelial (MEP) behavior that has not been previously reported in reconstituted organoids. The presence of contractility suggests t

SUBMITTER: Todhunter ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7995530 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature