@article{WoersdoerferDaldaKernetal.2019,
  author    = {W{\"o}rsd{\"o}rfer, Philipp and Dalda, Nahide and Kern, Anna and Kr{\"u}ger, Sarah and Wagner, Nicole and Kwok, Chee Keong and Henke, Erik and Erg{\"u}n, S{\"u}leyman},
  title     = {Generation of complex human organoid models including vascular networks by incorporation of mesodermal progenitor cells},
  series = {Scientific Reports},
  volume    = {9},
  journal   = {Scientific Reports},
  doi       = {10.1038/s41598-019-52204-7},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-202681},
  pages     = {15663},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells are interesting models to study mechanisms of morphogenesis and promising platforms for disease modeling and drug screening. However, they mostly remain incomplete as they lack stroma, tissue resident immune cells and in particular vasculature, which create important niches during development and disease. We propose, that the directed incorporation of mesodermal progenitor cells (MPCs) into organoids will overcome the aforementioned limitations. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the method, we generated complex human tumor as well as neural organoids. We show that the formed blood vessels display a hierarchic organization and mural cells are assembled into the vessel wall. Moreover, we demonstrate a typical blood vessel ultrastructure including endothelial cell-cell junctions, a basement membrane as well as luminal caveolae and microvesicles. We observe a high plasticity in the endothelial network, which expands, while the organoids grow and is responsive to anti-angiogenic compounds and pro-angiogenic conditions such as hypoxia. We show that vessels within tumor organoids connect to host vessels following transplantation. Remarkably, MPCs also deliver Iba1\(^+\) cells that infiltrate the neural tissue in a microglia-like manner.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SchmidtAltDeoghareetal.2022,
  author    = {Schmidt, Sven and Alt, Yvonne and Deoghare, Nikita and Kr{\"u}ger, Sarah and Kern, Anna and Rockel, Anna Frederike and Wagner, Nicole and Erg{\"u}n, S{\"u}leyman and W{\"o}rsd{\"o}rfer, Philipp},
  title     = {A blood vessel organoid model recapitulating aspects of vasculogenesis, angiogenesis and vessel wall maturation},
  series = {Organoids},
  volume    = {1},
  journal   = {Organoids},
  number    = {1},
  issn      = {2674-1172},
  doi       = {10.3390/organoids1010005},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-284043},
  pages     = {41 -- 53},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Blood vessel organoids are an important in vitro model to understand the underlying mechanisms of human blood vessel development and for toxicity testing or high throughput drug screening. Here we present a novel, cost-effective, and easy to manufacture vascular organoid model. To engineer the organoids, a defined number of human induced pluripotent stem cells are seeded in non-adhesive agarose coated wells of a 96-well plate and directed towards a lateral plate mesoderm fate by activation of Wnt and BMP4 signaling. We observe the formation of a circular layer of angioblasts around days 5-6. Induced by VEGF application, CD31\(^+\) vascular endothelial cells appear within this vasculogenic zone at approximately day 7 of organoid culture. These cells arrange to form a primitive vascular plexus from which angiogenic sprouting is observed after 10 days of culture. The differentiation outcome is highly reproducible, and the size of organoids is scalable depending on the number of starting cells. We observe that the initial vascular ring forms at the interface between two cell populations. The inner cellular compartment can be distinguished from the outer by the expression of GATA6, a marker of lateral plate mesoderm. Finally, 14-days-old organoids were transplanted on the chorioallantois membrane of chicken embryos resulting in a functional connection of the human vascular network to the chicken circulation. Perfusion of the vessels leads to vessel wall maturation and remodeling as indicated by the formation of a continuous layer of smooth muscle actin expressing cells enwrapping the endothelium. In summary, our organoid model recapitulates human vasculogenesis, angiogenesis as well as vessel wall maturation and therefore represents an easy and cost-effective tool to study all steps of blood vessel development and maturation directly in the human setting without animal experimentation.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Kern2022,
  author    = {Kern, Anna},
  title     = {Vaskularisierung von humanen neuralen Organoiden mit mesodermalen Progenitorzellen},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-29111},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-291116},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Viele Organoide sind bisher nur stark vereinfachte Modelle der Originalgewebe, da sie nur aus dem Gewebsparenchym bestehen. Um neurale Organoide n{\"a}her an das Originalgewebe zu bringen, ist ein wichtiger Schritt mesenchymale Anteile zu integrieren. In dieser Arbeit war die wichtige Fragenstellung, ob neurale Organoide sich mit mesodermalen Progenitorzellen zu einem gemeinsamen Gewebe vereinigen lassen. Um die Generierung von neuro-mesenchymalen Organoiden zu erreichen, wurden geeignete Differenzierungsprotokolle zur Erzeugung neuroepithelialer und mesodermaler Aggregate aus humanen induzierten pluripotenten Stammzellen etabliert. Anschließend wurden die Sph{\"a}roide vereinigt und eingehend histologisch charakterisiert. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus wurde die Organoidentwicklung unter dem Einfluss von Hypoxie analysiert. Um die Organoide anschaulich mit der tats{\"a}chlichen Embryogenese vergleichen zu k{\"o}nnen, wurden Schnitte von H{\"u}hnerembryonen angefertigt. Die neuro-mesenchymalen Organoide wurden insgesamt 280 Tage kultiviert und an verschieden Zeitpunkten untersucht. Die hier pr{\"a}sentierten Daten zeigen, dass die erzeugten neuro-mesenchymalen Organoide viele Aspekte der nat{\"u}rlichen Embryogenese in Zellkultur nachahmen k{\"o}nnen. So wurde die Ausbildung neuralrohr{\"a}hnlicher Strukturen, die von einem perineuralen Gef{\"a}ßplexus umgeben sind, gezeigt. Des Weiteren wurde eine Interaktion von Astrozyten/radiale Gliazellen mit dem entstehenden Gef{\"a}ßnetz beobachtet. Schließlich zeigten sich das Einwandern von mikrogliaartigen Zellen aus dem mesenchymalen Organoidteil in das Nervengewebe. Diese Arbeit bildet die Basis f{\"u}r die Generierung neuro-mesenchymaler Organoide als realistisches Modellsystem f{\"u}r die Entwicklung des Nervensystems. Solche Modellsysteme k{\"o}nnen f{\"u}r die Erforschung von Krankheiten, Toxizit{\"a}tsstudien sowie Medikamententests verwendet werden.},
  subject      = {Organoid},
  language  = {de}
}