Understanding equine GI diseases using intestinal organoids

Intestinal organoids are epithelial cells (the lining of the GI tract) that are isolated from GI tissue and grown in a 3D matrix with nutrients. These cells form “mini-guts” that have all the epithelial cells found in the intestine! In humans, intestinal organoids are used to study many kinds of GI disease, including diarrhea, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, colorectal cancer, and genetic mutations such as cystic fibrosis. The Sheahan lab has developed a method to isolate and grow duodenal and colonic organoids from living horses. For duodenal organoids, gastroscopy is performed under standing sedation and small biopsies are obtained of the duodenum. For colonic organoids, samples must be obtained after the horse has passed away. This makes these samples difficult to obtain, which is why we have also perfected the approach for rectal organoids as a substitute! For rectal organoids, a small superficial biopsy of the rectal tissue is obtained under light standing sedation.

We aim to use these organoids to study similar GI diseases in horses, and to test novel therapies in vitro before moving into studying those drugs in live horses. We are excited to have been funded by multiple grants from Morris Animal Foundation, Foundation for the Horse (AAEP), American Quarter Horse Foundation, and the CVM to develop these organoid model systems to study GI disease in horses.

Discovering the ‘unknown’ viruses associated with gastrointestinal disease in horses

We are excited to have been funded by the CVM and the NC Horse Council to study the role of a novel enteric virus in horses with intestinal disease. We recently published our findings in Equine Veterinary Journal! We found a novel kirkovirus in 2 farm outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease in horses. Read more here: https://beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evj.70121