title: Human endometrial side population cells exhibit genotypic, phenotypic and functional features of somatic stem cells.
abstract: During reproductive life, the human endometrium undergoes around 480 cycles of growth, breakdown and regeneration should pregnancy not be achieved. This outstanding regenerative capacity is the basis for women's cycling and its dysfunction may be involved in the etiology of pathological disorders. Therefore, the human endometrial tissue must rely on a remarkable endometrial somatic stem cells (SSC) population. Here we explore the hypothesis that human endometrial side population (SP) cells correspond to somatic stem cells. We isolated, identified and characterized the SP corresponding to the stromal and epithelial compartments using endometrial SP genes signature, immunophenotyping and characteristic telomerase pattern. We analyzed the clonogenic activity of SP cells under hypoxic conditions and the differentiation capacity in vitro to adipogenic and osteogenic lineages. Finally, we demonstrated the functional capability of endometrial SP to develop human endometrium after subcutaneous injection in NOD-SCID mice. Briefly, SP cells of human endometrium from epithelial and stromal compartments display genotypic, phenotypic and functional features of SSC.
authors.affiliation: Fundación IVI-Instituto Universitario IVI, Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cervelló
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gil-Sanchis
authors.forename: Aymara
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mas
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Delgado-Rosas
authors.forename: José Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Martínez-Conejero
authors.forename: Amparo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galán
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martínez-Romero
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: Ismael
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.forename: Jaime
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ferro
authors.forename: José Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Horcajadas
authors.forename: Francisco José
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Esteban
authors.forename: José Enrique
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pellicer
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Simón
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004717:Endometrium / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D051379:Mice; D016688:Mice, Inbred NOD; D016513:Mice, SCID; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous