ABSTRACT
Diabetes is a major metabolic disease and health issue worldwide that imposes a heavy burden. Research on its pathogenesis and development of effective treatments are currently our major national demands. With the advent of organoid technology, islet organoids have emerged and are attracting increasing attention as a promising model for diabetes research. The establishment of islet organoids is based on the current understanding of islet development. With addition of extra induction factors in vitro to programmatically activate or inhibit specific signaling pathways during islet development, stem cells can be induced to differentiate into three-dimensional cell cultures that possess structures and functions similar to those of natural islets. Because of their capability to mimic the development of islets in vitro, faithfully replicate islet structure, and perform islet physiological functions, islet organoids have been widely used as a valuable tool for the investigation of diabetes pathogenesis, drug screening and evaluation, and clinical transplantation, showing a great potential application. This paper reviews the current research progress, application, and challenges of islet organoids, and discusses the future directions for research on islet organoids.
