Researchers at the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) have analysed new alternatives for generating lung organoids — mini-organs developed in the laboratory that mimic the activity of real lungs and can be used to study various diseases. The results of their work have been published in the journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy.
The study analysed different hydrogels used to support the generation of laboratory-grown mini-lungs. Hydrogels are inert substrates, of either chemical or biological origin, that allow organoids to be cultivated by providing structural support for the growth and differentiation of stem cells capable of generating miniature tissues for biomedical research. Organoids are one of the main areas of research in regenerative medicine.
One of the most widely used hydrogels for developing organoids, known as Matrigel, is of animal origin. Therefore, one of the objectives is to identify biocompatible alternatives for developing mini-lungs for use in a human context. The authors tested three non-animal-derived hydrogels — Biogelx, PLTMAx and GelMA — to determine whether they could enable the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into mature mini-lungs with similar efficacy.
The lead authors of the research are Irene Chamorro-Herrero, from the Stem Cell and Organoid Biotechnology Laboratory at the Functional Unit for Chronic Disease Research (UFIEC), and Julio Sempere, from the Pneumococcal Reference Laboratory at the National Center for Microbiology (CNM) and the Respiratory Area of the Biomedical Research Networking Center (CIBER-ISCIII). These laboratories are directed, respectively, by Dr Alberto Zambrano and Dr José Yuste.
The results indicate that the organoids developed with the alternative hydrogels had aberrant structural characteristics and were not sufficiently mature. Although the hydrogels analysed did not demonstrate the same capacity as Matrigel, the data obtained have opened new experimental avenues for identifying and evaluating synthetic or human-derived substrates that could facilitate the in vitro bioprinting of mini-lungs, which could, in the future, be used as alternatives for tissue and organ replacement.
Item reference: Chamorro-Herrero, I., Sempere, J., Yuste, J. et al. Evaluation of the hydrogels Matrigel, Biogelx, PLTMAx and GelMA in the generation of minilungs from human embryonic stem cells (hESC). Stem Cell Res Ther (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-026-05165-4
In pictures:
From left to right: Dr. José E. Yuste, head of the Pneumococcus Reference Laboratory (National Center for Microbiology and CIBER-ISCIII); Dr. Julio Sempere, lead author of the work, from the aforementioned laboratory; Irene Chamorro, also lead author of the work, from the Laboratory of Biotechnology of stem cells and organoids at UFIEC-ISCIII), and Dr. Alberto Zambrano, head of the latter laboratory.
Two images of ‘mini-lungs’ generated in the laboratory. Image: UFIEC-ISCIII.
