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Updated: Jul 21, 2026

Isolation and Enrichment of Human Lung Epithelial Progenitor Cells for Organoid Culture
Published on: July 21, 2020
Mpox virus replicates in lung organoids without significantly affecting their cellular function
Yoshitaka Nakata1, Keiya Uriu2, Rina Hashimoto1
1Department of Synthetic Human Body System, Medical Research Laboratory, Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-8510, Japan.
Abstract:
Patients with mpox may present with a skin rash and mild respiratory symptoms, including sore throat and cough. The genome of the mpox virus (MPXV) has been detected in throat swab specimens from some mpox patients, indicating potential involvement of the respiratory tract. In this study, we used lung organoids to investigate the effects of MPXV infection on the respiratory system by evaluating the viral replication and the infection-mediated host response. MPXV infection resulted in the accumulation of high levels of viral genomes within the cells. H&E staining showed almost no histological differences between MPXV-infected lung organoids and uninfected lung organoids. In addition, RNA-seq analysis revealed that MPXV infection did not significantly alter the gene expression levels of various lung markers. MPXV infection did not change the production of proinflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and interferon-beta (IFN-β). These findings suggest that MPXV can replicate in lung organoids without significantly affecting their cellular function.
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