Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research ›› 2026, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (34): 9008-9016.doi: 10.12307/2026.857

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Regional specificity of brain organoids and their application in ischemic stroke modeling and drug development 

  

  1. 1The First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province/Affiliated Hospital of Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650032, Yunnan Province, China; 2Department of Neurosurgery, Diqing Prefecture Hospital, Shangri-La 674400, Yunnan Province, China; 3Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University, Kunming 650021, Yunnan Province, China
  • Received:2025-10-29 Revised:2026-01-17 Online:2026-12-08 Published:2026-04-14
  • Contact: Chang Shun, PhD, Associate chief physician, Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University, Kunming 650021, Yunnan Province, China
  • About author:Li Ying, Associate chief physician, The First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province/Affiliated Hospital of Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650032, Yunnan Province, China
  • Supported by:
    Kunming University of Science and Technology Medical Joint Special Project - General Program, No. KUST-KH2023032Y (to CS); Yunnan Provincial Department of Science and Technology Project - General Program, No. 202401AT070057 (to CS); Yunnan Provincial First People’s Hospital Clinical Open Project, No. 2024SNKFKT-03 (to WQY); Kunming Medical University Joint Special Project - General Program, No. 202301AY070001-213 (to YCA)

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The construction of brain organoid technology and its application in ischemic stroke are new research hotspots in recent years. The anatomy and functional organization of the brain of rodents are significantly different from those of the human brain, which determines that they cannot fully mimic the physiological, pathological and anatomical characteristics of the human brain. At the same time, there are ethical issues in obtaining brain tissue samples from patients in clinical practice, so the importance of brain organoids in ischemic stroke research is that they can replace clinical brain tissue and animal models to build in vitro research models that are more suitable for human brain tissue, which is of great value in disease mechanism modeling and drug development.
OBJECTIVE: To review and summarize the current regional-specific studies on brain organoids are presented, providing new technical means and research strategies for the application of brain organoids in ischemic stroke modeling and drug development.
METHODS: A literature search on organoids and ischemic stroke was conducted using the CNKI and PubMed databases. The retrieval period spanned from the inception of each database up to May 2025. Search terms included: “ischemic stroke, stroke, organoid, ischemia-reperfusion injury, glucose-oxygen deprivation/reoxygenation, forebrain organoid, hippocampal organoid, thalamic organoid, midbrain organoid” in Chinese and “ischemic stroke, stroke, organoids, oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation, middle cerebral artery occlusion, forebrain organoids, hippocampal organoids, thalamic organoids, midbrain organoids” in English. All the retrieved documents were original research articles and relevant reviews. A total of 98 articles were screened for analysis and summary.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) The dorsal anterior brain organoids simulate the cortical neuroepithelium and differentiate into astrocytes, excitatory neurons, and oligodendrocytes, etc. The ventral anterior brain organoids mimic the ganglion protrusions and develop into basal ganglia and striatum, showing extensive neuronal migration and maintaining GABAergic characteristics. (2) The transplantation of hippocampal organoids generated from human-induced pluripotent stem cells can integrate with the neural circuit function of the mouse hippocampus, receive excitatory input, and form a neuronal grid with synaptic connections. (3) The thalamus/hypothalamus organoids simulate the development, cell diversity, and exploration of dopamine neuron specificity of the human hypothalamic arcuate nucleus. (4) Midbrain organoids are widely used in the study of Parkinson’s disease modeling, gene editing, and drug development. (5) Oxygen-glucose deprivation induces brain organoids to simulate ischemic stroke in vitro, and to study neurological damage involved through death pathways such as apoptosis, necroptosis, autophagy, and ferroptosis. The expression profile of brain organoid genes changed significantly after oxygen-glucose deprivation treatment. The application of neuroprotective drugs such as carnooxalic acid or the transplantation of brain organoids in middle cerebral artery occlusion rats can improve the neurological function damage of rats, reduce the volume of infarction, and play an important role in the field of transplantation regenerative medicine.



Key words: ischemic stroke, stroke, organoids, hippocampal organoids, thalamic organoids

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