Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology (CEOG) is published by IMR Press from Volume 47 Issue 1 (2020). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with S.O.G.
Objective: To explore a novel approach for the isolation of human endometriotic stem cells for further study in the stem cell theory of endometriosis. Materials and Methods: A serum-free medium (SFM) was used to isolate the stem cells from ectopic endometrium, eutopic endometrium, and normal endometrium in vitro, and the biological properties including clonogenicity, multipotency, and invasive ability were examined and compared. Results: The ectopic endometrium-derived stem cells cultured in SFM showed higher cloneforming efficiency and sphere formation efficiency (SFE) than eutopic endometrium and normal endometrium, they all can differentiate to endothelial cell and fibroblast, and the ectopic endometrium-derived stem cells also have stronger invasive ability than eutopic endometrium-derived and normal endometrium-derived stem cells. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, the authors can conclude that human endometriotic stem cells can be isolated in SFM effectively and ectopic endometrium-derived stem cells are probably associated with endometriosis.
