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. 2021 Dec 10;4:1387. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-02910-8

Table 1.

Different types of materials for the generation of organoids from various tissues in three-dimensional culture.

Materials Advantages Disadvantages Organoids made using this type of material References
Matrigel Inexpensive and commercially available, extensively used with well-developed protocols Undefined culture system, subject to lot-to-lot variation, poor control of mechanical properties, may not contain all chemical cues necessary for differentiation, immunogenicity Gut, heart, brain, liver, kidney, pancreas, female reproductive tract, inter alia. See references1227 for reviews
Decellularized tissue Preserves native chemical cues and mechanical properties, resulting organoids can be large Preparation is difficult, limited by donor availability, lack of definition Liver, intestine, heart, lung, kidney, pancreas, testicular, stomach Liver:7377,80 Intestine:79,80 Heart:69,70 Lung:70,71,121 Kidney:67,68,70 Pancreas:8082 Testes:72 Stomach80:
Collagen and other biomacromolecules derived from natural sources Low cost, wide availability No structural information preserved, not all necessary chemical cues present, often requires feeder cells, lot-to-lot variation Liver, intestine, pancreas, epithelium, brain, lung, vascular, stomach, kidney Liver:98 Intestine:8486,8991,102,103 Pancreas:104 Epithelium:86,88,89 Brain:101,111116 Lung:99,100 Vascular:105 Stomach:85,102 Kidney:87
Synthetic polymers Excellent control of mechanical and chemical properties, repeatability, tunable degradation rate Requires functionalization with cell-binding peptides or presence of feeder cells, possible cytotoxicity concerns Brain, liver, intestine, pancreas, salivary glands Neural and Brain:156,157,161,165,169,174 Liver:158160,179 Intestine:162164 Pancreas:175 Salivary Glands:183
Recombinant proteins and peptides Precise placement of chemical cues, tunable mechanical properties, tunable degradation rate, easy to include cell-binding domains Possible endotoxin contamination, higher cost, possible immunogenicity Pancreas, brain, intestine, heart Pancreas:192195 Brain:196,198202 Intestine:191 Heart:189,190