Introduction:To date, modelling disease mechanisms in the human nasopharynx is limited
to the usage of difficult-to-obtain ex vivo organ cultures, quantity-limited primary
nasopharynx cell culture models or immortalized nasopharyngeal tumour cell lines.
Each system harbours specific advantages but also disadvantages and only the human
ex vivo organ system can sufficiently recapitulate tissue architecture and also infection
mechanisms. However, limitations occur in the availability and reproducibility of
the material and the long-term usage of the tissue.
During the last decade, adult stem cells have become important tools in biomedical
research to mimic human (and mouse) organ architecture in vitro. These cells can be
grown and expanded in 3D cultures as organoids or on fibroblasts in the ground-state
manifold. Adult stem cells have been isolated from many different organs or tissues
like liver, pancreas, stomach, intestine, skin, kidney and lung. These in vitro grown
mini organs are used to understand different infectious diseases or cancer.
Methods:
The tissue stem cells can be expanded manifold, cryopreserved and reused after thawing.
By using the air-liquid interface differentiation method we could achieve organotypic
differentiation into nasopharynx-like tissue.
Results:
Here, we describe the isolation, long-term cultivation and characterization of epithelial
stem cells (adult stem cells) from human nasopharynx tissue.
Conclusion:
This achievment will be opening up possibilities for direct infection analyses with
pathogenic agents having nasopharynx tissue tropism.
