Host: The Japanese Society of Toxicology
Name : The 50th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Toxicology
Date : June 19, 2023 - June 21, 2023
Organoids cultured in 3D have great potential as research tools for a wide range of topics including human brain, function, disease, and drug toxicity testing. We have previously demonstrated that effects of exposures to methylmercury or thalidomide in in in vitro neurodevelopmental toxicity assessment tests using human embryonic stem cells. Therefore, we are attempting to construct 3D neural organoids suitable for in vitro neurodevelopmental toxicity tests using more versatile iPS cells. Embryonic bodies of uniform size were generated in ultra-low adhesion 96-well round-bottom plates using Japanese human iPS cell lines distributed from the RIKEN cell bank, maintained in planar culture without feeder cells, and differentiation medium with and without bFGF addition. Then, neural induction was performed in induction-medium with Smad inhibitor, and the neuro-epithelium was grown and cultured by Matrigel encapsulation, followed by long-term culture up to day 50 in an orbital shaker. The morphological changes in their internal structures were analyzed as a possible indicator for toxicity evaluation. Exposure to bFGF in the early stage of differentiation did not cause significant changes in the development and proliferation of neurons. Long-term culture was achieved by improving the conventional culture method. We also examined the effects of exposure to pesticide chemicals using these neural organoids, and will present the results and discuss their potential application to drug discovery and the evaluation of safety and toxicity of food ingredients.
