Intestinal organoids: A new paradigm for engineering intestinal epithelium in vitro

In recent years, the advent of intestinal organoid culture systems has revolutionized in vitro studies of the small intestine epithelium. Intestinal organoids are derived from self-organizing and self-renewing intestinal stem cells and closely recapitulate the native intestinal epithelium. They therefore represent a more physiologically-relevant in vitro model than conventional cell cultures for studying intestinal development, biology and pathophysiology. Moreover, they represent a promising and unprecedented new tool in the realm of regenerative and personalized medicine. In this review, we outline the current approaches to develop intestinal organoids and describe the strategies used to induce complexity, multicellularity and modularity in organoid culture systems; this knowledge will contribute to improved biomimicry of the organoid culture system. We focus on co-culture systems and explore the convergence of organoid technology and engineering principals. Finally, we describe applications of intestinal organoids in various fields.