Comparative Evaluation of hiPSC-Derived Brain Organoids as Platforms for Assessing Thyroid Hormone System Disrupting Chemicals

Journal article

Highlights: What are the main findings? T3-responsive gene expression, T3 metabolism, and SOX2-positive progenitor populations are informative endpoints for detecting THSDC effects in hiPSC-derived brain organoids, as shown by altered T3-dependent responses to silychristin and iopanoic acid, particularly under chronic exposure. Differentiation-stage quality control improves the interpretability, reproducibility, and assay readiness of distinct hiPSC-derived brain organoid platforms. What are the implications of the main findings? hiPSC-derived brain organoids have potential as human-relevant NAMs to study thyroid hormone system disruption during early brain development. Standardized workflows with defined QC checkpoints are essential for advancing brain organoid models toward reproducible toxicology testing and future regulatory applications. Abstract: Thyroid hormones (THs) are essential regulators of human brain development, and disrupted TH availability during pregnancy or early life is linked to adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. Concerns that environmental chemicals interfere with TH signalling have increased the need for human-relevant in vitro systems to identify thyroid hormone system-disrupting chemicals (THSDCs) for risk assessment. Here, we compared two human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived brain organoid models for THSDC assessment: (i) human cortical organoids (COs) generated by unguided differentiation, offering higher architectural complexity but lower throughput; and (ii) neural stem cell-derived organoids (NSCOs), designed for scalability with reduced cellular diversity. Both models expressed key TH handling components, including the transporter SLC16A2 (MCT8) and the inactivating enzyme DIO3. Using LC–MS/MS, we show that exogenous T3 is depleted from culture media and metabolized to 3,3′-T2 and 3′-T1 in both models, alongside upregulation of T3-responsive genes (HR, KLF9, DIO3, SEMA3C). Pulse and chronic co-exposures to reference disruptors iopanoic acid (IA, deiodinase inhibitor) and silychristin (SC, MCT8 inhibitor) altered T3 metabolism and modulated T3-responsive transcriptional endpoints. In NSCOs, high-content imaging revealed treatment-associated changes in cell composition, with chronic T3 reducing the SOX2-positive progenitor pool and THSDCs blocking this effect. Together, these findings provide a framework for organoid qualification—linking TH handling, transcriptomic responsiveness, and scalable phenotypic readouts—as a necessary step toward model validation and implementation of brain organoids in THSDC risk assessment pipelines.

Authors: Fernandez Vallone, V; Hellwig, L; Rijntjes, E; von Kügelgen, N; Sane, R

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: MDPI
• Journal: Cells
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 963
• Article number: 963
• Publication date: 2026-05-22
• Acceptance date: 2026-05-12
• DOI: 10.3390/cells15110963
• EISSN: 2073-4409
• ISSN: 2073-4409
• Language: English
• Keywords: thyroid hormone system disruption; endpoints; validation; NAMs; brain organoids