http://www.nature.com/news
This press release is copyright Nature. Its use is granted only for journalists and news media
receiving it directly from Nature.
*** PLEASE DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT ***
EMBARGO:
**Please note altered embargo times due to changes to/from daylight savings times**
1800 London time (GMT) / 1400 US Eastern Time Wednesday 29 October 2014
0300 Japanese time / 0500 Australian Eastern Time Thursday 30 October 2014
Wire services’ stories must always carry the embargo time at the head of each item, and may
not be sent out more than 24 hours before that time.
Solely for the purpose of soliciting informed comment on Nature papers, you may show
relevant parts of this document, and the papers to which it refers, to independent specialists –
but you must ensure in advance that they understand and accept Nature’s embargo
conditions.
The article is available on the Nature press site at: http://press.nature.com
Warning: This document, and the papers to which it refers, may contain sensitive or
confidential information not yet disclosed to the public. Using, sharing or disclosing this
information to others in connection with securities dealing or trading may be a violation of
insider trading under the laws of several countries, including, but not limited to, the UK
Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934, each of
which may be subject to penalties and imprisonment.
PLEASE CITE NATURE AS THE SOURCE OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. IF PUBLISHING ONLINE,
PLEASE CARRY A HYPERLINK TO http://www.nature.com/news
[1] Stem cells: Growing miniature stomachs *IMAGES*
DOI: 10.1038/nature13863
Three-dimensional human gastric tissues made from human stem cells, described in Nature this
week, provide a new system for studying human stomach development and disease.
Gastric diseases, such as ulcers and gastric cancer, affect 10% of the world’s population, and
their development has been associated with chronic Helicobacter pylori infection. Animal models are
not ideal for studying such diseases, as there are differences in the anatomy and inner workings
between animals and humans. To create a more realistic model, James Wells and colleagues have
generated human gastric tissue using human stem cells as the starting material. The so-called gastric
organoids have a complex, 3D structure and contain different cell types with functional characteristics
that mirror those seen in the stomach. In addition, the organoids are shown to faithfully recapitulate
early stages of gastric disease initiated by H. pylori, demonstrating the capability of the system to act
as a model to study diseases of the stomach.
The authors conclude that the stem-cell-derived gastric organoids should present new
opportunities for drug discovery and modelling early stages of gastric diseases, including cancer.
CONTACT
James Wells (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, OH, USA)
Tel: +1 513 636 8767; E-mail: james.wells@cchmc.org
Please link to the scientific paper in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the
embargo ends): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13863
PRESS CONTACTS…
For the UK
Rebecca Walton, Nature London
Tel: +44 20 7843 4502; E-mail: r.walton@nature.com
For North America
Neda Afsarmanesh, Nature New York
Tel: +1 212 726 9231; E-mail: n.afsarmanesh@us.nature.com
For China
Piao Li, Nature China
Tel: +86 21 2422 5042; E-mail: piao.li@nature.com
For Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan
Mika Ishida, Nature Tokyo
Tel: +81 3 3267 8751; E-mail: m.ishida@nature.com
Image 1 Caption: Whole mount immunofluorecent image of e10.5 mouse gut tube stained with
Sox2(green), Pdx1 (red) and Cdx2 (blue).
Credit: Katie Sinagoga
Image 2 Caption: Immunofluorecent image of human gastric organoid derived stained with
Pdx1(green), H. pylori (red) and E-cadherin (blue).
Credit: Kyle McCracken
Image 3 Caption: Immunofluorecent image of human gastric organoid derived stained with E-cadherin
(green), MUC5AC (red) and DAPI (blue).
Credit: Kyle McCracken