Fig. 1

Schematics of mainstream human reproductive organoids and their applications. Different reproductive organoid development processes. Human reproductive organoids can be generated from normal or malignant primary tissues. Alternatively, somatic cells can be reprogrammed to become induced pluripotent stem cells, which are used as sources of reproductive organoids through directed differentiation. Primary tissues are dissociated into functional units that contain adult stem cells. These functional units can be digested into single cells and sorted to enrich stem cells for an organoid culture. Furthermore, iPSCs undergo directed differentiation towards the desired germ lineage and are subsequently embedded in matrix such as Matrigel to initiate an organoid culture. Organoids are typically cultured in an extracellular matrix (ECM) surrounded by culture media supplemented with specific niche factors. Applications of reproductive organoids. In basic research, organoid technologies provide new insights to understand the principles of development, homeostasis, and regeneration. Moreover, targeted gene therapy using the CRISPR/Cas9 system can be used on organoids derived from disease tissue. In personalized medicine, patient-derived organoids (PDO) can help to identify the best drug for each patient and diseases, including endometrial and ovarian cancers. Omics analysis (transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenomics, and metabolomics) of healthy and diseased organoids can reveal the molecular mechanisms involved in tissue differentiation and diseases. Bio-banked organoids can be used to identify drugs that are effective against a broad spectrum of disease phenotypes. Organoids also represent useful tools for the study of infectious diseases because they replicate the complexity of the in vivo system yet still retain the accessibility of an in vitro system