Construction of an in vitro lymphoid organoid: studying innate-adaptive immune cell interaction in a 3D culture system

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The immune system is made up of two components, innate and adaptive. Innate immune cells, mainly dendritic cells, fight pathogens using defences that are quickly mobilised and triggered by cell surface molecules (receptors) that recognise a broad spectrum of pathogens. Adaptive immune cells, such as T cells, on the other hand provide a more specific and long-term protection against pathogens. Although the classification of immunity into innate and adaptive has served to simplify and facilitate the description of many immunological events, it is becoming increasingly evident that the interaction between innate and adaptive immune cells is crucial for mounting appropriate immune responses. This, therefore, necessitated the establishment of suitable culture systems and animal models for studying such interactions, and the use of these systems has so far been useful in understanding the interrelationships between dendritic cells and T cells. However, in trying to better recreate what happens in the human lymph nodes (the small organs where dendritic cells and T cells meet), we are proposing to construct a three-dimensional culture system that resembles a lymphoid organoid. This will hopefully be a more physiological system and one that will allow the development of further applications for studying cell-cell interactions. If successful, this system will eventually reduce the number of some animal experimentations. The development of such a system is timely given that the 7th amendment to the EU Cosmetics Directive will impose a marketing ban on new ingredients tested on animals from 2009 onwards. Our initiative is supported by Unilever, a company which has considerable experience and vested interest in the development of model systems for predicting the allergenic potential of new healthcare products.