Scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Birmingham have created the first bone marrow organoids (artificially grown miniature organs) containing all the major components of human marrow. This technology makes it possible to test multiple cancer drugs simultaneously and create personalized treatments for individual cancer patients, the university said in a statement. Press release.
The study, published in Cancer Discovery magazine, describes a new method in which human stem cells are cultured to generate the major cell types common in human bone marrow. These new organoids can also keep cancer cells from blood cancer patients alive in the laboratory. Something that used to be very difficult. This means that doctors can test different treatments on the patient’s cancer cells.
Dr Abdullah Khan of the University of Birmingham says: “Surprisingly, we found that the cells in their bone marrow organoids resemble real bone marrow cells, but not only in terms of activity and function. Cell types can also arrange and arrange themselves, just like they do in human bone marrow. This is a huge step forward, allowing for better understanding of cancer cell growth patterns and more personalized treatment.”
Blood cancer
This realistic architecture allowed the team to study how bone marrow cells work together to support blood cell production. They also looked at how this is disrupted in bone marrow fibrosis, an incurable disease in which scar tissue builds up in the bone marrow and becomes progressively less functional.
“To understand how and why blood cancers develop, we need to use experimental systems that closely resemble how real bone marrow works. It wasn’t possible before,” says the study’s second author, Bethan Psaila of the University of Oxford. “It’s very exciting to have this amazing system now, because it finally allows us to study cancer directly using our patients’ cells. Instead of relying on simpler systems”.
