Long-Term Culture of Intestinal Cell Progenitors: An Overview of Their Development, Application, and Associated Technologies

Andrew J. Hollins, Lee Parry

Long-term culture of adult progenitor cells in 3D is a recently emerging technology that inhabits the space between 2D cell lines and organ slice culture. Adaptations to defined media components in the wake of advances in ES and iPS cell culture has led to the identification of conditions that maintained intestinal cell progenitors in culture. These conditions retain cellular heterogeneity of the normal or tumour tissue, and the cultures have been shown to be genetically stable, such that substantial biobanks are being created from patient derived material. This coupled with advances in analytical tools has generated a field, characterized by the term "organoid culture", that has huge potential for advancing drug discovery, regenerative medicine, and furthering the understanding of fundamental intestinal biology. In this review, we describe the approaches available for the long-term culture of intestinal cells from normal and diseased tissue, the current challenges, and how the technology is likely to develop further.