Study Bacteria–Host Interactions Using Intestinal Organoids

The intestinal epithelial cells function to gain nutrients, retain water and electrolytes, and form an efficient barrier against foreign microbes and antigens. Researchers employed cell culture lines derived from human or animal cancer cells as experimental models in vitro for understanding of intestinal infections. However, most in vitro models used to investigate interactions between bacteria and intestinal epithelial cells fail to recreate the differentiated tissue components and structure observed in the normal intestine. The in vitro analysis of host–bacteria interactions in the intestine has been hampered by a lack of suitable intestinal epithelium culture systems. Here, we present a new experimental model using an organoid culture system to study bacterial infection.