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

免疫系统由两个组成部分组成，先天的和后天的。先天性免疫细胞，主要是树突状细胞，使用识别广泛病原体的细胞表面分子(受体)迅速动员和触发的防御系统来对抗病原体。另一方面，适应性免疫细胞，如T细胞，对病原体提供了更特异和更长期的保护。虽然将免疫分为先天免疫和获得性免疫的分类有助于简化和促进对许多免疫学事件的描述，但越来越明显的是，先天免疫细胞和获得性免疫细胞之间的相互作用对于建立适当的免疫反应至关重要。因此，需要建立合适的培养系统和动物模型来研究这种相互作用，到目前为止，这些系统的使用对于理解树突状细胞和T细胞之间的相互关系是有用的。然而，为了更好地重现人类淋巴结(树突状细胞和T细胞相遇的小器官)中发生的事情，我们提议构建一个类似于淋巴器官的三维培养系统。这将有望成为一个更具生理学意义的系统，并将允许进一步开发研究细胞间相互作用的应用程序。如果成功，该系统最终将减少一些动物实验的次数。鉴于欧盟化妆品指令第7修正案将从2009年起对在动物身上测试的新成分实施市场禁令，这样一个系统的开发是及时的。我们的倡议得到了联合利华的支持，联合利华是一家在开发用于预测新保健产品的过敏潜力的模型系统方面拥有丰富经验和既得利益的公司。

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.