Abstract

Over the past decade, technological advances have enabled long-term culture of organotypic intestinal tissue derived from human subjects and from human pluripotent stem cells. These in vitro culture systems have already shown considerable promise for informing our understanding of organ development and function. Additionally, organoids provide a means to better understand individual variation in response to drugs or infections. The generation of organoids from livestock and other animals it an emerging field of research with high potential for applications in animal science and veterinary medicine. Here we show that location-specific functions of different parts of the intestine are intrinsically programmed in the adult stem cells of the porcine intestinal epithelium.

Recent data on the stability of intestinal tissue organoids during long-term culture will also be summarized. Finally, examples of the use of these tools in the study of host–pathogen interactions and other future avenues of research will be presented.