https://scholar.dgist.ac.kr/handle/20.500.11750/10207 Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:29:58 GMT 2026-04-04T17:29:58Z https://scholar.dgist.ac.kr/handle/20.500.11750/58300 Title: Microbial metabolites control self-renewal and precancerous progression of human cervical stem cells Author(s): Myeong, Jihyeon; Lee, Minho; Lee, Bawool; Kim, Joon Hyung; Nam, Yeji; Choi, Yeseul; Kim, Jeongmin; Jeon, Se Young; Shim, Haewon; Jung, Da-Ryung; Shin, Youngjin; Jeong, Minsoo; Oh, Byungmoo; Jung, Jaehun; Kim, Christine S.; Han, Hyung Soo; Shin, Jae-Ho; Lee, Yoon Hee; Park, Nora Jee-Young; Chong, Gun Oh; Jeong, Youngtae Abstract: Cervical cancer is the fourth most common female cancer, with the uterine ectocervix being the most commonly affected site. However, cervical stem cells, their differentiation, and their regulation remain poorly understood. Here, we report the isolation of a population enriched for human cervical stem cells and their regulatory mechanisms. Using single-cell RNA sequencing, we characterize the cellular heterogeneity of the human ectocervix and identify cluster-specific cell surface markers. By establishing normal and precancerous cervical organoids and an intralingual transplantation system, we show that ITGB4 and CD24 enable enrichment of human and murine ectocervical stem cells. We discover that Lactobacilli-derived lactic acid regulates cervical stem cells’ self-renewal and early tumorigenesis through the PI3K-AKT pathway and YAP1. Finally, we show that D-lactic acid suppresses growth of normal and precancerous organoids, while L-lactic acid does not. Our findings reveal roles of human cervical stem cells and microbial metabolites in cervical health and diseases. © The Author(s) 2025. Fri, 28 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT https://scholar.dgist.ac.kr/handle/20.500.11750/58300 2025-02-28T15:00:00Z https://scholar.dgist.ac.kr/handle/20.500.11750/56882 Title: Lung Cancer Organoid System to Evaluate the Cytotoxicity of Natural Killer Cells Author(s): Oh, Byungmoo; Kim, Jeongmin; Kim, Namwoog; Jeong, Youngtae Abstract: Natural killer (NK) cells are gaining growing attention due to their promise for immunotherapy. A fast and accurate system is needed to test NK cell biology and their therapeutic application. Here, we report a lung cancer organoid-based system to evaluate NK cells’ cytotoxicity. We first established the lung cancer organoids on top of Matrigel, which allows the co-culture with NK cells. When co-cultured, NK cells moved close to and inside the lung cancer organoids. When we analyzed by flow cytometry, co-culture of NK cells induced a significantly higher ratio of cell death of lung cancer organoids, suggesting that lung cancer organoids can be employed to test the cytotoxicity of NK cells. Finally, the pre-treatment of NK cells with A83-01, a TGFβ inhibitor, significantly enhanced the cell death of lung cancer organoids by NK cells, indicating that lung cancer organoid-based system faithfully recapitulates cell line-based system in evaluating the in vitro cytotoxicity of NK cells. These data represent that cancer organoid-based NK cell co-culture system is a reliable platform for studying NK cell biology and evaluating their cytotoxicity for screening for NK cell immunotherapy. © 2025 by the Korean Society for Stem Cell Research Fri, 31 Jan 2025 15:00:00 GMT https://scholar.dgist.ac.kr/handle/20.500.11750/56882 2025-01-31T15:00:00Z