Developmental co-emergence of cardiac and gut tissues modeled by human iPSC-derived organoids

During embryogenesis, paracrine signaling between tissues in close proximity contributes to the determination of their respective cell fate(s) and development into functional organs. Organoids are in vitro models that mimic organ formation and cellular heterogeneity, but lack the paracrine input of surrounding tissues. Here, we describe a human multilineage iPSC-derived organoid that recapitulates cooperative cardiac and gut development and displays extensive cellular and structural complexity of both tissues. We demonstrate that the presence of endoderm tissue (gut/intestine) in multilineage organoids contributed to the development of the cardiac tissue, specifically cardiomyocyte expansion, compartmentalization, enrichment of atrial/nodal cells, myocardial compaction and functional fetal-like maturation. Overall, this study demonstrates the ability to generate specific cooperative tissues originating from different germ lineages within a single organoid model, an advance that will further the examination of multi-tissue interactions during development and disease.