A recent research team, including Klaudia Grieger and Valerie Schröder from Fraunhofer ITEM as well as researchers and physicians from Hannover Medical School and the KRH Klinikum Siloah, has now introduced a new model that enables the investigation of immune responses directly in human intestinal tissue. For the study within the framework of the ImmunAvatar project, so-called precision-cut intestinal slices (PCIS) were prepared from surgical ileum resections of IBD patients. This ex-vivo model makes it possible to analyze disease-specific immune responses under physiologically relevant conditions and to test new therapies directly in patient tissue.

The results show that tissue from IBD patients produces elevated levels of specific pro-inflammatory cytokines compared to non-IBD tissue. Moreover, treatment with the drug pimecrolimus – a calcineurin inhibitor – led to a marked reduction in this inflammatory response.

This publication presents, for the first time, a comprehensive characterization of local immune activity in human intestinal tissue slices and highlights the potential of this model for preclinical drug testing. The study represents an important step toward patient-relevant models for IBD research and illustrates how human tissue–based methods can advance translational research.