The Use of Organoid Cultures in Advancing Nutrition Research

The importance of food and nutrients in human health and chronic disease progression has been appreciated for centuries. Crucial developments enabling understanding of the complex interactions between dietary patterns and health were made in the 20th century, owing in part to improvements in in vitro cell culture methods. Such 2-dimensional (2D) cell lines remain extensively used to study the molecular mechanisms through which nutrients regulate cellular homeostasis. Nevertheless, they do not recapitulate the in vivo environment and the complexity associated with tissues and organs, which invariably contain multiple cell types. Thus, findings from 2D cell cultures may not be directly applicable or representative of the in vivo situation. By contrast, organoids are 3D tissue structures capable of mimicking structural, functional, and multicellular features of an intact organ, and are becoming increasingly used to carry out in-depth cell and molecular level studies. In particular, the use of intestinal organoids in food and nutrition research has expanded in recent years due to the greater suitability of organoids relative to 2D cultures for investigating nutrient uptake, transport, metabolism, and host-microbiome interactions. In the present review, we summarize the emerging role and contributions of organoids, with emphasis on intestinal organoids, in nutrition research and intestinal health. We further highlight current limitations of organoid cultures and discuss potential future strategies to improve the use of organoids as a preferred model for investigations in the nutritional sciences.