Patient-matched transcriptomics of in vivo and in vitro colonic epithelium substantiate organoids as a translational model for ulcerative colitis

Abstract

Abstract Ulcerative colitis (UC) is characterized by cytokine-driven inflammation and barrier disruption in the colon, making epithelial dysfunction central to disease pathology. Intestinal epithelial organoids (IEOs) preserve donor-specific genetics and architecture, offering a promising model, but their ability to replicate patient-specific epithelial inflammation remains undetermined. To directly compare in vivo epithelial transcriptional states with defined cytokine-induced responses in vitro, we analyzed patient-matched transcriptomics from laser microdissected inflamed and uninflamed colonic epithelium and IEOs derived from uninflamed biopsies of the same UC patients. IEOs were stimulated with UC-relevant cytokines (TNF, IFNγ, IFNλ1, or TNF + IFNγ) or a cytokine cocktail (TNF, IL17, IL1β, IL22, Poly(I:C), IFNγ). Key inflammatory genes were validated by immunoblotting and immunostaining. Cytokine-stimulated IEOs recapitulated key in vivo epithelial inflammation, including interferon signaling, antigen presentation, and unfolded protein response pathways. Among the tested conditions, TNF + IFNγ combination and the cytokine cocktail most closely replicated UC epithelial inflammation, with concordance for over 350 UC-relevant genes and protein-level validation of IRF1, ERAP2, NOS2, DUOX2 confirmed patient-dependent expression between inflamed epithelium and cytokine-stimulated IEOs. Our study shows that cytokine-stimulated IEOs provide a robust, personalized platform for modeling epithelial inflammation, enabling discovery of epithelial-specific disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets.