The ability to model epithelial cells in vitro has been the foundation of modern biomedical research because it captures cellular features that are not accessible in vivo. For instance, growing epithelial cell lines in a two-dimensional plane can provide an assessment of the molecular changes that occur in an epithelial cell during proliferation1. Furthermore, measuring the dynamic regulation between signaling and gene expression is limited in in vivo systems2. In cancer research, cancer epithelial cell line modeling has enabled the identification of molecular drivers of disease progression and potential drug targets3. However, growing cancer epithelial cell lines on a two-dimensional plane has limitations, as most are genetically immortalized and modified, often clonal in nature, selected for their ability to grow in non-physiologic conditions, limited in their assessment of three-dimensional (3D) tumor tissue architecture, and do not adequately model microenvironment interactions within a realistic tissue environment4. These constraints are particularly evident in modeling metastasis, which in vivo includes several distinct biological stages, including invasion, dissemination, circulation, and colonization at the distant organ site5.
Cancer epithelial organoids have been developed to better recapitulate the 3D environment and behavior of tumors6,7,8. Organoids were first developed from single LRG5+ intestinal crypt cells and differentiated to represent the 3D structure of crypt-villus units that maintained the hierarchical structure of the small intestine in vitro9. This approach permitted real-time visualization and characterization of self-organizing tissue architecture under homeostatic and stress conditions. As a natural extension, cancer epithelial organoids were developed to model many different cancer types, including colorectal10, pancreatic11, breast12, liver13, lung14, brain15, and gastric cancers16. Cancer epithelial organoids have been exploited to characterize cancer evolution17,18 and metastatic spatiotemporal behaviors19,20 and interrogate tumor heterogeneity21, and test chemotherapies22. Cancer epithelial organoids have also been isolated and collected during ongoing clinical trials to predict patient response to anticancer agents and radiation therapy ex vivo8,23,24,25. Furthermore, systems incorporating cancer epithelial organoids can be combined with other non-cancer cells, such as immune cells, to form a more comprehensive model of the tumor microenvironment to visualize interactions in real-time, uncover how cancer epithelial cells change the fundamental nature of cytotoxic effector immune cells such as natural killer cells, and test potential immunotherapies and antibody-drug dependent cytotoxic activity26,27,28. This article demonstrates a method of generating epithelial organoids without passaging and embedding in collagen and basement extracellular matrix (ECM). Additionally, techniques for downstream imaging of isolated organoids are also shared.