The human endometrium is essential in providing the site for implantation and maintaining the growth and survival of the conceptus. An unreceptive endometrium and disrupted maternal-conceptus interactions can cause infertility due to pregnancy loss or later pregnancy complications. Despite this, the role of uterine glands in first trimester human pregnancy is little understood. An established organoid protocol was used to generate and comprehensively analyze 3-dimensional endometrial epithelial organoid (EEO) cultures from human endometrial biopsies. The derived EEO expand long-term, are genetically stable, and can be cryopreserved. Using endometrium from 2 different donors, EEO were derived and then treated with estrogen (E2) for 2 d or E2 and medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) for 6 d. EEO cells were positive for the gland marker, FOXA2, and exhibited appropriate hormonal regulation of steroid hormone receptor expression. Real-time qPCR and bulk RNA-sequencing analysis revealed effects of hormone treatment on gene expression that recapitulated changes in proliferative and secretory phase endometrium. Single-cell RNA sequencing analysis revealed that several different epithelial cell types are present in the EEO whose proportion and gene expression changed with hormone treatment. The EEO model serves as an important platform for studying the physiology and pathology of the human endometrium.
Center for Reproductive Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
Endometrial collagen I undergoes dynamic degradation and remodelling in response to endometrial stromal cell (ESC) decidualization and embryo implantation. However, excessive collagen I deposition in the endometrium during the implantation window may impair decidualization, causing embryo implantation failure in patients with endometriosis (EMS). We found that endometrial collagen I expression during the mid-secretory phase was increased in the EMS group of patients.
Key Laboratory for Experimental Teratology of Ministry of Education, Department of Histology and Embryology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250012, P.R. China.
Endometriosis (EM) is a chronic inflammatory disease that is one of the most common causes of gynecological systemic lesions in women before menopause. The most representative histological feature of EM is that the endometrium appears outside of the uterine cavity, often in the ovary. Although it is generally accepted that the epithelial and stromal cells of the ectopic endometrium are not malignant, they still have numerous similarities to malignant tumors, including considerable changes to the immune microenvironment (immune monitoring disorder), the creation of a specific hormone environment, high levels of oxidative stress, chronic inflammation and abnormal immune cell regulation.
The endometrium is a dynamic tissue that undergoes significant changes during the reproductive cycle and pregnancy. Its high regenerative capacity is due to the presence of progenitor cells, which maintain tissue homeostasis. Previous studies have identified small populations of endometrial progenitor cells and investigated their role in tissue repair.
