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PARIS Scientists using stem cells said on Wednesday they had built the worlds first mini-stomachs tiny clusters of human gastric tissue that could spur research into cancer, ulcers and diabetes.

Called gastric organoids, the lab-dish tissue comprises buds of cells that are a miniature version of the stomach, the researchers said.

They were made from pluripotent stem cells which were coaxed into developing into gastric cells, according to the study, published in the journal Nature.

Youthful and versatile, pluripotent stem cells have excited huge interest as a source of transplant tissue grown in a lab.

Sources for them include stem cells derived from early-stage embryos and adult cells reprogrammed to their juvenile state, called induced pluripotent stem cells.

But the field has encountered many problems, led by the challenge of getting cells to differentiate, or become cells for specific organs.

The exploit entailed identifying the chemical steps that occur during embryonic development, when cells differentiate into the specific types that form the stomach.

These steps were then replicated in a Petri dish so that pluripotent stem cells developed into endoderm cells, the building blocks of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts.

These were then biochemically nudged into becoming cells of the antrum, the stomach region that secretes mucus and hormones.

Still at a preliminary stage, the organoids are a long way from being replacement tissue or a fully fledged stomach.

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