From stem cells to organoids in thyroid: useful tools or a step for cell therapy?

Dulanjalee Kariyawasam; Athanasia Stoupa; Adrien Nguyen Quoc; Ines Pimentel Dantas; Michel Polak; Aurore Carré

doi:10.1016/j.lpm.2025.104301

From stem cells to organoids in thyroid: useful tools or a step for cell therapy?

Presse Med. 2025 Jul 10:104301. doi: 10.1016/j.lpm.2025.104301. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Dulanjalee Kariyawasam¹, Athanasia Stoupa², Adrien Nguyen Quoc³, Ines Pimentel Dantas⁴, Michel Polak², Aurore Carré³

Affiliations

¹ Université Paris Cité, Paris, France; INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, Paris, France; IMAGINE Institute affiliate, Paris, France; Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetology and Gynecology Department, Necker-Enfants Malades University Hospital, AP-HP, Paris, France. Electronic address: dulanjalee.kariyawasam@aphp.fr.
² Université Paris Cité, Paris, France; INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, Paris, France; IMAGINE Institute affiliate, Paris, France; Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetology and Gynecology Department, Necker-Enfants Malades University Hospital, AP-HP, Paris, France; Centre régional de dépistage néonatal (CRDN) Ile de France, Paris, France.
³ INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, Paris, France; IMAGINE Institute affiliate, Paris, France.
⁴ Université Paris Cité, Paris, France; INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, Paris, France.

PMID: 40651806
DOI: 10.1016/j.lpm.2025.104301

Abstract

Organoids are three-dimensional tissue cultures derived from stem cells. They replicate the complexity of different cell types in an organ and can survive in specific media. They also have the capacity to proliferate and self-renew. Thyroid organoids have now been established using a variety of cell sources, including murine or human embryonic stem cells, pluripotent stem cells, adult thyroid-derived stem cells, and even fetal thyroids. Experimental designs to obtain thyroid organoids depend on the originating cell types and whether a forced (transient or permanent) overexpression of two important transcription factors in thyroid development, Nkx2-1 and Pax8, has been used by lentiviral transduction. All cells are harvested in an extracellular membrane to achieve a three-dimensional cell culture. The development of strategies to obtain organoids has revealed the signaling pathways and growth factors that are essential for this type of culture, and which are also essential for thyroid development. The development of thyroid organoids has facilitated a deeper understanding of the key factors and stages involved in the differentiation of stem cells into thyroid follicular cells. Furthermore, they have demonstrated utility as a model for pathology, such as Graves' disease. Insights regarding other thyroidal pathologies will likely emerge in the future. Furthermore, thyroid organoids have demonstrated their potential for regenerative medicine, a promising but not yet fully efficient technology for treating definitive hypothyroidism.

Keywords: Thyroid organoids; adult tissue-derived stem cells; developmental tool; embryonic stem cells; extracellular matrix; fetal thyroid-derived organoids; medium; pluripotent stem cells; regenerative medicine.