Organoids represent one of the most important advancements in the field of stem cells during the past decade. They are three-dimensional in vitro culturing models that originate from self-organizing stem cells and can mimic the in vivo structural and functional specificities of body organs. Organoids have been established from multiple adult tissues as well as pluripotent stem cells and have recently become a powerful tool for studying development and diseases in vitro, drug screening, and host–microbe interaction. The use of stem cells—that have self-renewal capacity to proliferate and differentiate into specialized cell types—for organoids culturing represents a major advancement in biomedical research. Indeed, this new technology has a great potential to be used in a multitude of fields, including cancer research, hereditary and infectious diseases. Nevertheless, organoid culturing is still rife with many challenges, not limited to being costly and time consuming, having variable rates of efficiency in generation and maintenance, genetic stability, and clinical applications. In this review, we aim to provide a synopsis of pluripotent stem cell-derived organoids and their use for disease modeling and other clinical applications.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are emerging as promising diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for prostate cancer (PCa). This study explored the association between urinary exosome MMP levels and the incidence of prostate cancer. Urine samples were collected from patients undergoing prostate biopsy or prostatectomy, and from age-matched healthy controls. A total of 147 patients participated, including 37 patients who provided samples before prostatectomy, 41 patients before a biopsy that turned out positive, 21 patients before a biopsy that turned out negative, and 48 healthy controls. The study found that MMP-2 expression was similar in patients with prostate cancer and healthy controls but significantly higher in those with a negative biopsy. MMP-9 expression was elevated in patients with a positive biopsy and even higher in those with a negative biopsy. Multivariate logistic regression, adjusted for age, showed that increased MMP-2 expression was linked to a higher likelihood of a negative biopsy result (OR 1.12 [1.002,1.252], P = 0.046), while increased MMP-9 expression was associated with a higher probability of prostate cancer diagnosis (OR 1.106 [1.002,1.22], P = 0.045). These findings suggest that urinary MMP-9 levels are elevated in PCa patients, though even higher levels in biopsy-negative cases may reflect confounding factors such as benign prostatic inflammation.

Cardiac differentiation is modulated by anti-apoptotic signals in murine embryonic stem cells