Human gastroids to model regional patterning in early stomach development

Abstract

The human stomach features distinct, regionalized functionalities along the anterior-posterior axis^1,2. Historically, studies on stomach patterning have used animal models to identify the underlying principles^3-7. Recently, human pluripotent stem (hPS)-cell-based gastric organoids for modelling domain-specific development of the fundic and antral epithelium are emerging^8-10. However, recapitulating self-organized fundic-antral patterning in early stomach organogenesis remains challenging, presenting a considerable barrier for advancing knowledge of stomach organogenesis. Here we report human gastroids-a self-organized multilineage gastric organoid derived from hPS cells-to model gastric fundic-antral patterning in vitro. Through multi-germ-layer co-development, we generate gastroids that feature an epithelial chamber with bipolar fundic-antral patterning, annexed with neural populations near the fundic domain while enveloped by mesenchymal cells, therefore showing molecular, cellular, structural and anatomical similarity to stomach development in vivo. Non-endodermal cells, especially neural populations, function as a critical signalling centre to instruct fundic-antral patterning in gastroids through WNT-mediated crosstalk. Single-cell transcriptomic profiling and genetic silencing further reveal NR2F2 as a key mediator of fundic-antral patterning in gastroid development. This study reveals a principle for instructing gastric patterning and provides a higher-fidelity platform for advancing knowledge of stomach organogenesis and gastric organoid development.