OrganDots - an organotypic 3D tissue culture platform for drug development

Introduction: There is an urgent need for preclinical testing systems that more accurately reflect responses in human target organs. The use of ex vivo tissues taken out of the human body and kept alive for sufficient time to perform testing has until recently been limited by tissue availability and by the length of time tissues can be kept alive outside the body, however, recent advances in tissue handling and tissue culture techniques have now made it possible to envisage using such tissues for drug discovery on a scale that is of value for the evaluation of compounds prior to testing in humans. Areas covered: The article presents a method for generating 3D microtissues at the air-liquid interface 'OrganDots' which are formed by reaggregating primary tissues or stem cell-based material which may be useful in drug discovery and development. The article compares this method with other methods for obtaining ex vivo tissues and looks at their uses as surrogates to testing compounds in humans. Expert opinion: Reconstituting tissues in vitro has now reached a point where they can be used to profile the activity of compounds prior to in vivo testing. The ability to reconstitute tissues from primary material and the ability to synthesize new tissues in vitro from stem cells may lead to new testing systems that better reflect human pathophysiology and may allow individual differences to be expressed in vitro. These new drug testing systems should lead to more predictable in vitro drug testing systems in the near future.