Characteristics of Human Endometrium-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Their Tropism to Endometriosis

Abstract

Human endometrial tissue has become an attractive source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for cell-based therapies because these MSCs can be easily harvested and have tumour tropism as well as reduced immunogenic and inflammatory properties. Our study aimed to obtain and characterise human endometrial mesenchymal stem cells (EMSCs) and assess their endometriosis tropism. EMSCs were successfully isolated from the endometrium of women undergoing laparoscopy for idiopathic infertility. The EMSCs presented a fibroblast-like morphology during culture. Flow cytometry analyses showed that the cells were positive for the specific stem cell markers CD73, CD90, CD105, CD166, and HLA-ABC (major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC I)) but negative for CD14, CD34, CD45, and HLA-DR (MHC II). Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction results showed that the EMSCs expressed the stem cell marker OCT4. The EMSCs could differentiate into osteocytes, adipocytes, and chondrocytes under certain conditions. The EMSCs had a high tropism to endometriosis without tumourigenicity. This study enhances the possibility of using EMSCs as drug carriers in human cell-based therapies. Meanwhile, future research could also focus on developing targeted therapies for endometriosis.

Pathogenesis of deep endometriosis

“…More recently pluripotent stem cells were found in the endometrium and in the peritoneal cavity. Mesothelial-to-mesenchymal transition in the peritoneal cavity is well known (124,125) with a specific role of platelets (48). Some of these mesenchymal/ mesothelial cells of the peritoneal cavity (48), of the mesothelial repair after surgery (126) and in endometrium and endometriosis (127)(128)(129)(130)(131) are directly derived from bone marrow.…”

Endometriosis — insights into a multifaceted entity

“…The endometrial and biochemical-endometrial markers are considered as stromal [61,62], glandular [62][63][64], neuronal [65], proteolytic enzymes and their specific inhibitors [28][29][30][31][66][67][68][69][70], adhesion molecules [34,62,[71][72][73][74], osteopontin [75], hormonal receptors [38,39,[76][77][78][79][80], and mesenchymal stem cells [81][82][83][84][85].…”

Single cell RNA sequencing redefines the mesenchymal cell landscape of mouse endometrium

“…Bulk mRNA sequencing combined with bioinformatics analysis identified genes upregulated in the GFP bright cells including those previously reported as being expressed by vSMCs and/or pericytes such as Olfr78,Rgs4,Rgs5,Cspg4 (NG2), Vcam1, Kitl and Kcnj8 (Cheng, et al 2017;Gaafar, et al 2014;He, et al 2016;Spitzer, et al 2012). A previous transcriptomic analysis (by gene array) of human putative endometrial mesenchymal PDGFRβ+CD146+ cells compared to stromal fibroblasts (PDGFRβ+CD146-) also identified a gene signature they reported as similar to that of pericytes (Spitzer et al 2012).…”