Applications of thymic organoids for autoimmune patients

Autoimmunity affects ~8.8% of the US population, and is when a person’s own immune cells attack their body. In many cases, autoimmune diseases can be life threatening. Since the immune system is the culprit, the thymus is a main point of focus. The thymus is an organ in the immune system that matures T cells. In order to better model thymic development and function, researchers have been using thymic organoids, or stem cell-derived clusters of thymic cells grown in vitro. Thymic organoids have been proven to be useful for drug screening and disease modeling. To enhance maturation and make organoids more accessible for therapeutic application, thymic organoids can be integrated into microfluidic systems as a form of thymic organ-on-a-chip technologies. Researchers are now exploring the idea of implementing thymic organoids in vivo, for patients affected by autoimmunity, whether that be parts of the organoid, the entire organoid, or many organoids coming together to make a full artificial yet functional organ. There are several limitations like the limited understanding of thymic organoids and their limited maturity. With the help of further work in this field, including single-cell RNA and microfluidic chips, researchers will be able to overcome these obstacles. With advancements in the field, thymic organoids may serve as a possible cure for patients struggling with autoimmunity.