The liver is an remarkable organ: it can regenerate itself after damage. But exactly how this process works has been difficult to study until now. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden have now taken an important step.
The team developed a so-called organoid, a tiny three-dimensional model of an organ. It grows in the laboratory and behaves similarly to real tissue in the body. Such mini-organs help researchers around the world better understand diseases. Over the past ten years, more than 20,000 scientific studies have been published on this topic.
Recreating the natural environment
“A key challenge when studying organoids is maintaining the balance between cell growth and the diversity of different cell types present in the organ,” explains doctoral researcher Javier Bregante. The team therefore adapted the growth conditions so that they more closely mimic the natural environment of the tissue.
The study was carried out in collaboration with the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden and the University Hospital Rostock. The research group is led by Meritxell Huch, Director at MPI-CBG and Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at TU Dresden.
The new model allows researchers, for the first time, to study different forms of human cholangiocytes and how they transition between states. This could help scientists better understand disease-related changes in the liver. The results were published in the journal Cell Reports.
Original publication:
Javier Bregante, Flaminia Kaluthantrige Don, Fabian Rost, André Gohr, Germán Belenguer, Franziska Baenke, Dylan Liabeuf, Jessie Pöche, Clemens Schafmayer, Michaela Wilsch-Bräuninger, Sebastian Hinz, Kevin O' Holleran, Daniel E. Stange, Meritxell Huch: Human liver cholangiocyte organoids capture the heterogeneity of in vivo liver ductal epithelium, Cell Reports, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2026, 116786.
