Bladder Organoids and Spheroids: Potential Tools for Normal and Diseased Tissue Modelling

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Urology
• Oncology

Background:

• Bladder diseases pose significant healthcare burdens, necessitating innovative diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
• Organoids and spheroids, as 3D ex vivo models, present novel opportunities for disease assessment.
• Three-dimensional cell culture models are crucial for understanding complex biological systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the literature on bladder organoids and spheroids.
• To analyze their applications in disease diagnosis, characterization, and treatment.
• To characterize cell types and manufacturing techniques for these models.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature review using PubMed and Web of Science databases.
• Inclusion criteria focused on bladder organoids or spheroids.
• Compilation and analysis of 58 relevant articles from an initial search of 191.

Main Results:

• Applications of bladder organoids/spheroids fall into three main categories: cancer characterization, diagnosis, and treatment.
• Cancer characterization studies examined extracellular matrix, microenvironment, genetics, and cell growth.
• Diagnostic applications explored photodiagnosis using fluorophores and white light; treatment studies investigated chemotherapy, immunotherapy, oncolytic viruses, and gene therapy.

Conclusions:

• Bladder organoids and spheroids are valuable tools for advancing bladder disease research.
• These 3D models show potential in improving cancer diagnosis, characterization, and therapeutic strategies.
• Further research utilizing these models could lead to significant breakthroughs in treating bladder-related conditions, including infections.