Analysis of Cell Death Induction in Intestinal Organoids In Vitro

The intestinal epithelium has an important function in the absorption of nutrients contained in the food. Furthermore, it also has an important barrier function, preventing luminal pathogens from entering the bloodstream. This single cell layer epithelium is quite sensitive to various cell death-promoting triggers, including drugs, irradiation, and TNF family members, leading to loss of barrier integrity, epithelial erosion, inflammation, malabsorption, and diarrhea. In order to assess the intestinal epithelium-damaging potential of treatments and substances specific test systems are required. As intestinal tumor cell lines are a poor substitute for primary intestinal epithelial cells, and in vivo experiments in mice are costly and often unethical, the use of intestinal organoids cultured from intestinal crypts provide an ideal tool to study cell death induction and mechanisms in primary intestinal epithelial cells. This protocol describes the isolation and culture of intestinal organoids from murine small intestinal crypts, and the quantitative assessment of cell death induction in these organoids.