culturing chopper-processed tumor pieces for generating patient-derived 3d glioma organoids

Derivation of 3D Glioma Organoids from Chopper-Processed Patient Tumors

Low-grade gliomas (LGGs) are a group of relatively rare brain tumors that typically present as slow-growing and less aggressive compared to high-grade gliomas like glioblastoma. They can occur in both adults and children, with a slightly higher prevalence in adults. The exact prevalence varies by region and population, but LGGs account for approximately 15%-20% of all primary brain tumors1. Treatment strategies for LGGs often involve a combination of surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, aiming to maximize tumor resection while preserving neurological function. The management of LGGs can be complex, and the choice of therapy may depend on factors such as tumor location and molecular characteristics2. Advances in understanding the genetic and molecular underpinnings of LGGs have led to more targeted therapies, and ongoing research continues to refine treatment approaches.
Glioblastoma, IDH-wild type, CNS WHO grade 4 (GBM), on the other hand, is the most prevalent primary brain tumor found in adults, with an incidence rate between 3.19-4.17 cases per 100,000 person-years3. GBM causes symptoms such as headaches, seizures, focal neurological deficits, changes in personality, and increased intracranial pressure. The standard treatment for GBM involves debulking of the tumor, if feasible, followed by radiation therapy combined with Temozolomide4. Furthermore, combining Temozolomide and Lomustine may enhance the median overall survival rate in patients with O6-methylguanine-methyltransferase (MGMT)-promoter methylation5. However, despite these recent therapeutic approaches, GBM remains an incurable disease with poor prognosis, characterized by a patients&#39; median overall survival rate of 16 months up to 20.9 months when Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) is added3,6. Several immunotherapeutic approaches have been investigated in GBM but demonstrated limited efficacy in vivo. Moreover, clinical and preclinical limitations hinder therapeutic breakthroughs7. The establishment of a suitable and realistic ex vivo model has been challenging due to the inter-8 and intratumoral9 heterogeneity of GBM.
Conventional 2-dimensional (2D) patient cell lines represent homogeneous cell populations and are suitable for high-throughput drug screening. However, patient-derived and immortalized cell lines fail to mimic GBM adequately due to differences in growth conditions and deviations in genotypic and phenotypic features after multiple passages10,11,12.
On the other hand, 3D organoid models have recently emerged as promising systems that replicate the phenotypic and molecular heterogeneity of organ and various cancer types13,14,15,16,17,18. In the context of GBM, cerebral organoids have been genetically modified to simulate tumor-like characteristics16,17 or co-cultured with GSCs or spheroids to induce tumor cell infiltration18,19. While patient-derived GBM organoids cultured with Matrigel and EGF/bFGF exhibit GBM hallmarks such as stem cell heterogeneity and hypoxia20, it remains uncertain to what extent this model can represent the key molecular properties of patients&#39; neoplasms.
Patient-derived GBM organoids (PDOs) are promising models that can maintain the predominant features of their analogous parental tumors, including histological characteristics, cellular diversity, gene expression, and mutational profiles. Additionally, they are rapidly infiltrated upon implantation into adult rodent brains, providing a realistic model for drug testing and personalized therapy21. However, manually dissecting tumor tissue to generate PDOs is time-consuming and costly. Therefore, an urgent need exists for a rapid method that can produce large numbers of PDOs, enabling comprehensive assessment of different therapeutic approaches holding promise for individualized drug testing. This study describes a new method for manufacturing PDOs directly from freshly dissected tumor tissue using an automatic tissue chopper. Furthermore, PDOs generated by this method were compared with manually dissected PDOs from the same patients in terms of PDO count, morphological features, apoptosis and proliferation of tumor cells.

Author Spotlight: Enhanced Generation of Patient-Derived 3D Organoids for Glioblastoma and Glioma

Cultivating Ex Vivo Patient-Derived Glioma Organoids Using a Tissue Chopper

Culturing Chopper-Processed Tumor Pieces for Generating Patient-Derived 3D Glioma Organoids

culturing-chopper-processed-tumor-pieces-for-generating-patient

Research

JoVE Journal

Cancer Research

Glioblastoma, IDH-wild type, CNS WHO grade 4 (GBM) is a primary brain tumor associated with poor patient survival despite aggressive treatment. Developing realistic ex vivo models remain challenging. Patient-derived 3-dimensional organoid (PDO) models offer innovative platforms that capture the phenotypic and molecular heterogeneity of GBM, while preserving key characteristics of the original tumors. However, manual dissection for PDO generation is time-consuming, expensive and can result in a number of irregular and unevenly sized PDOs. This study presents an innovative method for PDO production using an automated tissue chopper. Tumor samples from four GBM and one astrocytoma, IDH-mutant, CNS WHO grade 2 patients were processed manually as well as using the tissue chopper. In the manual approach, the tumor material was dissected using scalpels under microscopic control, while the tissue chopper was employed at three different angles. Following culture on an orbital shaker at 37 &#176;C, morphological changes were evaluated using bright field microscopy, while proliferation (Ki67) and apoptosis (CC3) were assessed by immunofluorescence after 6 weeks. The tissue chopper method reduced almost 70% of the manufacturing time and resulted in a significantly higher PDOs mean count compared to the manually processed tissue from the second week onwards (week 2: 801 vs. 601, P = 0.018; week 3: 1105 vs. 771, P = 0.032; and week 4:1195 vs. 784, P &lt; 0.01). Quality assessment revealed similar rates of tumor-cell apoptosis and proliferation for both manufacturing methods. Therefore, the automated tissue chopper method offers a more efficient approach in terms of time and PDO yield. This method holds promise for drug- or immunotherapy-screening of GBM patients.

This study introduces an automated method to generate patient-derived glioblastoma 3-dimensional organoids utilizing a tissue chopper. The method provides a suitable and effective approach to obtain such organoids for therapeutical testing.

Glioblastoma, IDH-wild type, CNS WHO grade 4 (GBM) is a primary brain tumor associated with poor patient survival despite aggressive treatment. Developing ...