[Press Release] Demonstration of a Novel Regenerative Medicine Concept Using “Mini-Organs” to Compensate for Insufficient Intestinal Function— By Endowing Mini-Organs with Bile Acid Absorption, a Key Mechanism for Lipid Uptake, Survival Was Improved in a Short Bowel Syndrome Model —
A research team led by Ryoma Endo, Shinya Sugimoto, and Toshiro Sato has developed a highly efficient technique to generate small intestine tissue with specific absorptive functions by transplanting organoids after selectively removing only the intestinal epithelium while preserving the underlying mesenchymal stroma that supports epithelial tissue.
Using this approach, the team successfully endowed the regenerated intestine with targeted absorption capabilities and further demonstrated that the technique exerts therapeutic effects in an animal model of short bowel syndrome. These findings represent a significant step forward toward the realization of regenerative medicine based on cell transplantation for the treatment of refractory intestinal diseases. The details of this study were published online in Cell Stem Cell on December 29, 2025 (U.S. Eastern Time).