AccScience Publishing / OR / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/OR025120013
COMMENTARY

Uncovering interleukin-7 in celiac disease through a human autoimmune organoid model: A commentary

Ruiqi Xie1* Enling Hu1 Zhihang Zhou2 Jing Xie3
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1 State Key Laboratory of Resource Insects, College of Sericulture, Textile and Biomass Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
2 Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
3 Department of Stomatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
Received: 21 March 2025 | Revised: 14 August 2025 | Accepted: 19 August 2025 | Published online: 9 September 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

This commentary describes an innovative air–liquid interface (ALI) duodenal organoid system for studying celiac disease (CeD). Derived from patient biopsies, this model uniquely preserves the native tissue microenvironment, including epithelial, stromal, and diverse tissue-resident immune cells, overcoming the limitations of conventional cultures and animal models. When stimulated with gluten peptides, the organoids replicate key pathological features of CeD, such as epithelial cell death mediated by cytotoxic T cells. Research has identified interleukin-7 (IL-7), secreted by mesenchymal cells, as a critical and previously underappreciated mediator of this gluten-induced autoimmune attack. This discovery highlights IL-7 as a promising therapeutic target and establishes the ALI organoid platform as a powerful tool for investigating complex epithelial–immune interactions in other autoimmune and infectious diseases, drug screening, and personalized medicine.

Keywords
Organoids
Celiac disease
Immune–epithelial interactions
Interleukin-7
Therapeutic targeting
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Organoid Research, Electronic ISSN: 3082-8503 Published by AccScience Publishing