Abstract GMM-030: MODELS AND ANALYTIC TECHNIQUES OF MULLERIAN TISSUE-DERIVED ORGANOIDS
Authors: Ho Germain C. , Cochrane Dawn R. , Gibbard Evan W. , Campbell Kieran , Tessier-Cloutier Basile , Greening Kendall , Kalantari Forouh , Trigo-Gonzalez Genny , Wang Yemin , McAlpine Jessica N. , Shah Sohrab P. , Huntsman David G. 
Published: June 2021

INTRODUCTION: Ovarian cancer is the 5th deadliest cancer found in women and is the deadliest involving the gynecological tract. Most epithelial ovarian cancers have extra-ovarian origins and can be stratified into various histotypes: high and low-grade serous (HGS and LGS), endometrioid (ENOC), clear cell (CCOC), and mucinous – each of which are proposed to have distinct precursor lesions. We present organoids as a useful model to study precursor lesions and the process of tumorigenesis in epithelial ovarian carcinomas. Organoids recapitulate the in vivo growth microenvironment and are useful to study the mechanisms of tumorigenesis from healthy cells. We have previously proposed that ENOC arise from the secretory cell lineage, while CCOC originate from the ciliated cell lineage, and organoids are an ideal model to examine in greater depth the impact of mutation on specific cell populations, such as ciliated cells.

METHODS: Surgical fallopian tube and endometrial tissues, removed for non-cancer reasons, were cultured in 2D followed by plating into Matrigel. Matrigel cultures were supplemented with media containing stem/progenitor differentiation factors promoting organoid growth. To study the effect of mutations often found in ovarian cancers on organoid growth and development, gene knockouts were produced using CRISPR lentiviruses on cells prior to Matrigel culture. Lentiviral transductions were optimized for organoid formation and for minimizing invasiveness accrued on cells. CRISPR gRNA constructs were validated by Western Blot and qPCR. Organoids containing knockouts of p53, BRCA1 and BRCA2 were used to model precursor lesions of HGS, whereas ARID1A knockouts and an inducible PIK3CA activating mutations were used to model CCOC.

To gain further insight into ciliated cells of the endometrium, organoids were treated with the notch inhibitor-DBZ to drive differentiation of cells towards a ciliated cell lineage. We analyzed organoids by single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), immunohistochemistry (IHC), and immunofluorescence staining (IF). Single cells were derived by purifying the organoids from Matrigel followed by a chemical and physical digestion. scRNA-seq was performed utilizing the 10X Genomics Platform and analyzed by in-house bioinformaticians. Bioinformatic analyses included stringent QC to remove low-quality and dead cells, before applying unsupervised learning algorithms like PCA and Gaussian mixture modeling as well as differential expression analysis to understand both how samples relate to each other and cell types discovered within each sample.

RESULTS: We successfully recapitulated the histology observed in tissues by growing endometrial and fallopian tube organoids. The notch inhibitor, DBZ forced ciliated cell differentiation, as observed by IHC, IF and scRNA-seq. scRNA-seq clustering of DBZ-treated organoid cultures revealed a possible intermediary state between progenitor and ciliated cells. Initial IHC and IF analyses of CRISPR-mediated organoids reveal successful gene manipulation.

CONCLUSIONS: Organoid cultures present as a powerful method for modelling precursor lesions; they can be readily manipulated genetically and with rapid turnaround compared to conventional mouse models. Organoids are also amenable to sequencing at single-cell resolution. The ability to model ovarian cancers with permanent knockouts in human tissue serves as a necessary link between animal models and human therapy.

Citation Format: Germain C. Ho, Dawn R. Cochrane, Evan W. Gibbard, Kieran Campbell, Basile Tessier-Cloutier, Kendall Greening, Forouh Kalantari, Genny Trigo-Gonzalez, Yemin Wang, Jessica N. McAlpine, Sohrab P. Shah, David G. Huntsman. MODELS AND ANALYTIC TECHNIQUES OF MULLERIAN TISSUE-DERIVED ORGANOIDS [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 12th Biennial Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium; Sep 13-15, 2018; Seattle, WA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2019;25(22 Suppl):Abstract nr GMM-030.