Generating 3D-cultured organoids for pre-clinical modeling and treatment of degenerative joint disease

Dear Editor,Human cell-based and personalized in vitro cartilage models are urgently needed for osteoarthritis treatment in pre-clinical regenerative medicine development.Cellular self-assemblies and condensations of the appropriate stem cells could initiate the formation of transient tissue structures programmed for specific organogenesis processes.1 This recapitulation of developmental events has previously been demonstrated for the formation of cardiac,epithelial and liver organoids.However,there has been very limited progress in the development of human cartilage organoids for osteoarthritis(OA).2 Here,we describe the fabrication of functional bioengineered cartilage organoid suitable for OA treatment.Briefly,agarose microwell inserts for formation of a high number of synovial mesenchymal stromal cell(SMSC)organoids with homogeneous size distribution were created as previously described by Leijten et al.33D-cultured SMSC organoids were generated and phenotypically analyzed for potential applications in OA modeling and treatment(Fig.1a).