Development of functional resident macrophages in human pluripotent stem cell-derived colonic organoids and human fetal colon

Summary

Most organs have tissue-resident immune cells. Human organoids lack these immune cells, which limits their utility in modeling many normal and disease processes. Here, we describe that pluripotent stem cell-derived human colonic organoids (HCOs) co-develop a diverse population of immune cells, including hemogenic endothelium (HE)-like cells and erythromyeloid progenitors that undergo stereotypical steps in differentiation, resulting in the generation of functional macrophages. HCO macrophages acquired a transcriptional signature resembling human fetal small and large intestine tissue-resident macrophages. HCO macrophages modulate cytokine secretion in response to pro- and anti-inflammatory signals and were able to phagocytose and mount a robust response to pathogenic bacteria. When transplanted into mice, HCO macrophages were maintained within the colonic organoid tissue, established a close association with the colonic epithelium, and were not displaced by the host bone-marrow-derived macrophages. These studies suggest that HE in HCOs gives rise to multipotent hematopoietic progenitors and functional tissue-resident macrophages. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Authors Múnera JO, Kechele DO, Bouffi C, Qu N, Jing R, Maity P, Enriquez JR, Han L, Campbell I, Mahe MM, McCauley HA, Zhang X, Sundaram N, Hudson JR, Zarsozo-Lacoste A, Pradhan S, Tominaga K, Sanchez JG, Weiss AA, Chatuvedi P, Spence JR, Hachimi M, North T, Daley GQ, Mayhew CN, Hu YC, Takebe T, Helmrath MA, Wells JM
Journal Cell stem cell
Publication Date 2023 Nov 2;30(11):1434-1451.e9
PubMed 37922878
PubMed Central PMC10913028
DOI 10.1016/j.stem.2023.10.002

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