Summary
Published in Aging Cell (2025), this peer-reviewed study used 3D Petri Dish® micro-molds to form scaffold-free 3D microtissues. Full citation: Dipali, Shweta S., et al. Self‐Organizing Ovarian Somatic Organoids Preserve Cellular Heterogeneity and Reveal Cellular Contributions to Ovarian Aging
Self‐Organizing Ovarian Somatic Organoids Preserve Cellular Heterogeneity and Reveal Cellular Contributions to Ovarian Aging
Research Overview
Ovarian somatic cells are essential to reproduction, yet no ex vivo model captured the heterogeneity and interactions of that compartment. The authors engineered ovarian somatic organoids by culturing a stroma-enriched fraction of mouse ovaries in scaffold-free agarose micromolds, where the cells self-organized into organoids that maintained diverse cell populations, produced extracellular matrix, and secreted hormones.
Organoids from reproductively old mice aggregated and grew less than those from young mice and differed in cellular composition. Matrix fibroblasts from old animals upregulated actin-cytoskeleton pathways and downregulated cell-adhesion pathways — a signature of increased cellular stiffness that may explain the impaired aggregation, and a lead on how ovarian aging operates at the stromal level.
Key Discoveries
- Stroma-enriched mouse ovary fractions self-organized into organoids in scaffold-free agarose micromolds
- Organoids preserved cellular diversity, produced ECM, and secreted hormones
- Aged-ovary fibroblasts showed cytoskeletal upregulation and adhesion downregulation, with reduced organoid aggregation
