An Efficient Intestinal Organoid System of Direct Sorting to Evaluate Stem Cell Competition in Vitro

Sci Rep. 2019 Dec 30;9(1):20297. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-55824-1.

Abstract

Stem cell competition could shed light on the tissue-based quality control mechanism that prevents carcinogenesis. To quantitatively evaluate stem cell competition in vitro, we developed a two-color intestinal organoid forming system. First, we improved a protocol of culturing organoids from intestinal leucine-rich-repeat containing G-protein-coupled receptor 5 (Lgr5)- enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)high stem cells directly sorted on Matrigel without embedding. The organoid-forming potential (OFP) was 25% of Lgr5-EGFPhigh cells sorted at one cell per well. Using this culture protocol with lineage tracing, we established a two-color organoid culture system by mixing stem cells expressing different fluorescent colors. To analyze stem cell competition, two-color organoids were formed by mixing X-ray-irradiated and non-irradiated intestinal stem cells. In the two-color organoids, irradiated stem cells exhibited a growth disadvantage, although the OFP of irradiated cells alone did not decrease significantly from that of non-irradiated cells. These results suggest that stem cell competition can be evaluated quantitively in vitro using our new system.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biomarkers
  • Fluorescent Antibody Technique
  • Gene Expression
  • Genes, Reporter
  • Immunophenotyping
  • Intestines / cytology*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Organoids / cytology*
  • Stem Cells / cytology*
  • Stem Cells / metabolism*
  • Tissue Culture Techniques*
  • Tissue Engineering

Substances

  • Biomarkers