'Mini-stomachs' built from stem cells

BENEFITS: These "mini-stomachs" could provide a testbed for stomach diseases, researchers say.

Scientists using stem cells say they have built the world's 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.

Pluripotent stem cells have excited huge interest as a dreamed-of source for transplant tissue grown in a lab, but the challenge of getting cells to become cells for specific organs has caused problems.

The exploit involved identifying the chemical steps that occur during embryonic development, then replicating them in a Petri dish so that pluripotent stem cells developed into endoderm cells - the building blocks of the respiratory and gastro-intestinal tracts.

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

Early tests on mice, though, suggest they could one day be a "patch" for holes caused by peptic ulcers.

The organoids also mark an important step forward in how to tease stem cells into becoming 3-D structure, the scientists said.

And, as "mini-stomachs", they also provide a testbed for studying diseases such as cancer, diabetes and obesity, the team said in a press release.

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'Mini-stomachs' built from stem cells