Reacción a "Reactions: organoids grow from amniotic fluid cells"

The study is of high quality and very interesting from a scientific and social point of view. In prenatal research, the creation of fetal organoids had been done from fetal tissues collected post mortem through biobanks and under ethical-legal restrictions that may hinder research. This article describes a technique to derive fetal epithelial organoids from different tissues from fetal fluids that make up the amniotic fluid, using minimally invasive sampling.  

It describes how organoids from small intestine, renal tubules and lungs are expandable and can functionally mature with great potential for regenerative medicine and personalised disease modelling. This advance would allow the study to be performed in ongoing pregnancies, providing ad hoc solutions in the future, with real-time analysis during gestation, potentially leading to more personalised and effective treatments.  

The main limitation of the study is its applicability in those alterations in foetal development that produce oligohydramnios, which is the medical term for an insufficient amount of amniotic fluid. That is, there are renal anomalies such as renal agenesis (absence of a kidney), renal dysplasia (abnormal development of the kidney) or urethral atresia (obstruction of the urinary tract) that can interfere with foetal urine production and therefore reduce the amount of amniotic fluid. Also abnormalities in the foetal bladder, such as urinary tract obstruction or bladder hypoplasia (abnormally small development of the bladder), can influence the amount of amniotic fluid. Also, some genetic or congenital conditions, such as Potter's syndrome or other chromosomal abnormalities, may be associated with reduced fetal urine production and consequently with oligohydramnios.