[New frontiers in the establishment and application of colonic organoids]

Colonic organoids are three-dimensional organotypic cultures of the colonic stem cells or pluripotent stem cells. Its essence is the culture of colonic stem cells or pluripotent stem cells, and their derived intestinal epithelial cells, intestinal endocrine cells and goblet cells in basement membrane extract with specific growth factors. Colonic organoids are comprised of all major types of colonic epithelial cells and represent the architecture and function remarkably similar to those of the colonic epithelium, faithfully recapitulating the functional colonic epithelium ex vivo. As a superior basic experimental model, colonic organoids are representing advantages over conventional cell models and animal models in many aspects, such as high successful rate, short productive cycle, and high consistency with source tissue. Since first reported in 2011, colonic organoids have soon become an important topic in the field of colonic diseases. It has now been applied in the field of physiology of colonic epithelium, infectious diarrhea, ulcerative colitis, regeneration of intestinal injury, and colon tumors. In this review, we summarize the research advances of establishment and application of colonic organoids.