biostudies-literatureUnknown26(1)Xue WThe spinal cord possesses highly complex, finely organized cytoarchitecture guided by two dorsoventral morphogenic organizing centers. Thus, generation of human spinal cord tissue <i>in vitro</i> is challenging. Here, we demonstrated a novel method for generation of human dorsoventral spinal cord organoids using composite scaffolds. Specifically, the spinal cord ventralizing signaling Shh agonist (SAG) was loaded into a porous chitosan microsphere (PCSM), then thermosensitive Matrigel was coated on the surface to form composite microspheres with functional sustained-release SAG, termed as PCSM-Matrigel@SAG. Using PCSM-Matrigel@SAG as the core to induce 3D engineering of human spinal cord organoids from human pluripotent stem cells (ehSC-organoids), we found ehSC-organoids could form dorsoviScience105898https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9840144biostudies-literatureGeneration of dorsoventral human spinal cord organoids via functionalizing composite scaffold for drug testing.PMC9840144Liu HXue WLi HRen LShao ZXiao YLi BfalseGeneration of dorsoventral human spinal cord organoids via functionalizing composite scaffold for drug testing.The spinal cord possesses highly complex, finely organized cytoarchitecture guided by two dorsoventral morphogenic organizing centers. Thus, generation of human spinal cord tissue <i>in vitro</i> is challenging. Here, we demonstrated a novel method for generation of human dorsoventral spinal cord organoids using composite scaffolds. Specifically, the spinal cord ventralizing signaling Shh agonist (SAG) was loaded into a porous chitosan microsphere (PCSM), then thermosensitive Matrigel was coated on the surface to form composite microspheres with functional sustained-release SAG, termed as PCSM-Matrigel@SAG. Using PCSM-Matrigel@SAG as the core to induce 3D engineering of human spinal cord organoids from human pluripotent stem cells (ehSC-organoids), we found ehSC-organoids could form dorsov2023-01-01T00:00:00Z2023 Jan2026-05-27T23:23:19.712Z2024-12-03T22:58:59.662ZS-EPMC98401443664738210.1016/j.isci.2022.105898