德国马克斯·德尔布吕克分子医学中心Mina Gouti团队在研究中取得进展，他们开发出自组织的三维人体躯干神经肌肉器官体。该项研究成果于2020年1月16日在线发表在《细胞—干细胞》杂志上。

Title: Self-Organizing 3D Human Trunk Neuromuscular Organoids

Author: Jorge-Miguel Faustino Martins, Cornelius Fischer, Alessia Urzi, Ramon Vidal, Severine Kunz, Pierre-Louis Ruffault, Loreen Kabuss, Iris Hube, Elisabeta Gazzerro, Carmen Birchmeier, Simone Spuler, Sascha Sauer, Mina Gouti

Issue&Volume: January 16, 2020

Abstract: Neuromuscular networks assemble during early human embryonic development and are essentialfor the control of body movement. Previous neuromuscular junction modeling effortsusing human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) generated either spinal cord neurons orskeletal muscles in monolayer culture. Here, we use hPSC-derived axial stem cells,the building blocks of the posterior body, to simultaneously generate spinal cordneurons and skeletal muscle cells that self-organize to generate human neuromuscularorganoids (NMOs) that can be maintained in 3D for several months. Single-cell RNA-sequencingof individual organoids revealed reproducibility across experiments and enabled the tracking of the neural and mesodermal differentiation trajectories as organoids developedand matured. NMOs contain functional neuromuscular junctions supported by terminalSchwann cells. They contract and develop central pattern generator-like neuronal circuits.Finally, we successfully use NMOs to recapitulate key aspects of myasthenia gravispathology, thus highlighting the significant potential of NMOs for modeling neuromuscular diseases in the future.

DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2019.12.007

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(19)30525-9