ABOVE: Injected tracer (green) flows through mouse endogenous lymphatic vasculature (orange), which has connected with a lympho-organoid (center).
ELISA LENTI
Researchers have developed lab-generated lymph node–like organoids that, when transplanted into mice in place of lymph nodes that have been removed, drain fluid and connect to the animals’ original lymphatic plumbing, as reported May 30 in Stem Cell Reports.
“We developed these lympho-organoids that have acquired in vivo some of the features of endogenous lymph nodes,” says Andrea Brendolan, a researcher at the IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy.
Brendolan says he hopes that one day, the technology will be developed to the point that lympho-organoids could serve as a treatment for lymphedema, swelling that can result from radiation damage to lymph nodes or their removal as part of cancer treatment.
“Hypothetically, it is looking at a major medical need,” says Mark Coles, a researcher at the University of ...
