Creating tissues and organs from stem cells—often referred to as ‘tissue engineering’—is hard. But new research has discovered that the process may in fact be a little easier than we once thought, at least in some situations.

Engineered human esophageal tissue [Credit: The Saban Research Institute].

Last week, scientists at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles announced that the esophagus—the tube that transports food, liquid and saliva between the mouth and the stomach—can be grown inside animal models after injecting the right mix of early-stage, or ‘progenitor,’ esophageal cells.

These findings, published in the journal Tissue Engineering Part A, are an important step towards generating tissues and organs that have been damaged due to disease or—in some cases—never existed in the first place.

According to stem cell researcher Tracy Grikscheit, who led the CIRM-funded study, the researchers first implanted a biodegradable ‘scaffold’ into laboratory mice. They then injected human progenitor cells into the mice and watched as they first traveled to the correct location—and then began to grow. The ability to both migrate to the right location and differentiate into the right cell type, without the need for any external coaxing, is crucial if scientists are to successfully engineer such a critical type of tissue.

“Different progenitor cells can find the right ‘partner’ in order to grow into specific esophageal cell types—and without the need for [outside] growth factors,” explained Grikscheit in a news release. “This means that successful tissue engineering of the esophagus is simpler than we previously thought.”

Grikscheit, who is also a pediatric surgeon as Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, was particularly hopeful with how their findings might one day be used to treat children born with portions of the esophagus missing—as well as adults suffering from esophageal cancer, the fastest-growing cancer in the U.S.

“We have demonstrated that a simple and versatile, biodegradable polymer is sufficient for the growth of a tissue-engineered esophagus from human cells. This not only serves as a potential source of tissue, but also a source of knowledge—as there are no other robust models available for studying esophageal stem cell dynamics.”

Want to learn more about tissue engineering? Check out these video highlights from a recent CIRM Workshop on the field.