Contributed by Nguyet Kong
3-D tissue culture models to mimic human gut infections
In an article from npj Microgravity, scientists have reported their latest advancement in 3-D intestinal model development where they want to develop more realistic model to prevent Salmonella from causing food poisoning and disease around the world. Salmonella infections have increase over the years and scientists are worried about finding new ways to improve their research faster than the infectious diseases. The 3-D tissue models are used to more accurately reflect how our bodies will respond to the pathogen. The scientist didn’t have the ability to understand the infectious disease fully due to the lack of models. With the three-dimensional models, they can better predict how people can respond to infection and understand how the cells and tissues in our bodies will function. A new study between Arizona State University and NASA Johnson Space Center, their goal is to make more realistic models that can more accurately reflect how the body will respond to the pathogen. One goal is to prevent Salmonella infection that can sometimes lead to death. In their model, they have incorporate an immune defense cell type, macrophages, they believe it is a key cell type during Salmonella infection. This allow the scientist to see how the macrophages and the epithelial cells interact during this host-microbe interaction study. The scientist have used a multi-drug resistant Salmonella strain that caused an epidemic in Africa for this study, they wanted to better understand the host-microbe interactions and infectious disease mechanisms to allow them to develop new needed vaccines and drug development for their infectious diseases.
Jennifer Barrila, Jiseon Yang, Aurélie Crabbé, Shameema F. Sarker, Yulong Liu, C. Mark Ott, Mayra A. Nelman-Gonzalez, Simon J. Clemett, Seth D. Nydam, Rebecca J. Forsyth, Richard R. Davis, Brian E. Crucian, Heather Quiriarte, Kenneth L. Roland, Karen Brenneman, Clarence Sams, Christine Loscher, Cheryl A. Nickerson. Three-dimensional organotypic co-culture model of intestinal epithelial cells and macrophages to study Salmonella enterica colonization patterns. npj Microgravity, 2017; 3 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41526-017-0011-2
http://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/03/3d-tissue-culture-model-mimics-gut-infections
