Editor: Akhmetova Aigerim
Author: Bolysbek Dana
The thymus is the organ of the chest where T-lymphocytes mature, which play a vital role in the immune system. In an experimental study published in Nature Communications, the researchers reconstructed the thymus using stem cells taken from patients who had to have the organ removed during surgery. When transplanted into mice, the bioengineered thymi were able to support the development of mature and functional human T lymphocytes.
This is the first time that scientists have successfully restored a fully functioning human thymus gland.
To rebuild this organ, the researchers grew thymic epithelial and interstitial cells from donated tissue from patients into many colonies of billions of cells. The next step for the researchers was to obtain a structural thymic scaffold that they could populate with the thymic cells they had grown. For this, scientist Aslan Jinovci has developed a new approach that allows to remove all cells of the rat thymus, so that only structural scaffolds remain. To accomplish this, they had to use a new surgical approach in microvascular surgery, as conventional methods were ineffective.
The researchers then injected the organ scaffolds with up to six million human thymic epithelial cells as well as interstitial cells from the colonies they had grown in the lab. The cells grew onto the scaffolds and after only five days, the organs had developed to a similar stage as those seen in nine-week old fetuses. Finally, the team implanted these thymuses in mice. They found that in over 75% of cases, the thymus is able to support lymphocyte development.
Paola Bonfanti, senior author and group leader at the Crick and professor in the Division of Infection and Immunity at UCL says: "Our work not only provides a new source of transplants for people without a working thymus, but has other potential applications in the future."
"For example, because the thymus gland helps the immune system distinguish itself from others, it poses a problem for organ transplants because it can cause the immune system to attack the graft."
«It is possible that we could overcome this by also transplanting a thymus regrown from cells taken from the thymus of the organ donor. We are confident that this may prevent the body attacking the transplant. The research behind this is still in early days, but it is an exciting concept which could remove the need for patients to take immune suppressors for the rest of their life.»
Researchers are continuing their work rebuilding the thymus.
Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-scientists-functioning-thymus-hum...
