Chemically-defined and scalable culture system for intestinal stem cells derived from human intestinal organoids

Three-dimensional human intestinal organoids (hIO) are widely used as a platform for biological and biomedical research. However, reproducibility and challenges for large-scale expansion limit their applicability. Here, we establish a human intestinal stem cell (ISC) culture method expanded under feeder-free and fully defined conditions through selective enrichment of ISC populations (ISC^3D-hIO) within hIO derived from human pluripotent stem cells. The intrinsic self-organisation property of ISC^3D-hIO, combined with air-liquid interface culture in a minimally defined medium, forces ISC^3D-hIO to differentiate into the intestinal epithelium with cellular diversity, villus-like structure, and barrier integrity. Notably, ISC^3D-hIO is an ideal cell source for gene editing to study ISC biology and transplantation for intestinal diseases. We demonstrate the intestinal epithelium differentiated from ISC^3D-hIO as a model system to study severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 viral infection. ISC^3D-hIO culture technology provides a biological tool for use in regenerative medicine and disease modelling.