The hyperexpressions of putative stem cells in the eutopic endometrium of patients with advanced endometriosis

Jong-Ryeol Choi, Jong Kil Joo, Jong-Kil Joo, Yong-Jin Na, Kyung Rae Ko, Hong-Gu Lee, Kyu Sup Lee, Yong-Taek Lim
In: Korean Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology · 2010 · vol. 53(3) , pp. 264 · doi:10.5468/kjog.2010.53.3.264 · W1987533661
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Eutopic endometrial cells from advanced endometriosis patients exhibited stem cell characteristics and significantly higher OCT-4 and CXCR4 expression compared to controls.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-10 ⓘ

This study examined whether eutopic endometrial cells obtained from women with advanced endometriosis versus women without endometriosis, adenomyosis, or leiomyoma exhibit stem-like traits in vitro, focusing on undifferentiated marker expression of OCT-4 and CXCR4. Eutopic endometrial cells collected from menstrual cycle day 2–4 were cultured for about 2 weeks, very small round cells were isolated using a Percoll density gradient, and OCT-4/CXCR4 expression was measured by real-time RT-PCR; the authors explicitly cautioned by limiting the cohort to 6 endometriosis patients and 10 controls. Compared with controls, the endometriosis group showed more heterogeneous supportive cells and a higher frequency of very small (less than 3 μm) and hyperchromatic round cells, and the isolated cells displayed stem-cell–like behaviors including self-renewal, asymmetric division, colony formation, embryoid body-like formation, migration/adhesion, sphere formation, and formation of new differentiated cells after fusion. OCT-4 and CXCR4 transcript levels were reported as 5.66-fold and 17.69-fold higher, respectively, in the endometriosis group. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it investigates stem-cell–like properties and OCT-4/CXCR4 overexpression in eutopic endometrium from patients with advanced endometriosis.

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Abstract

Recently it has been proposed that stem cells may be associated with the pathogenesis of endometriosis. The purposes of this study are to investigate whether the eutopic endometrial cells of women with or without endometriosis show the characteristics of stem cells in vitro and have a difference of the expressions of the undifferentiated stem cell markers as OCT-4 and CXCR4. Methods: A total of 6 women with advanced endometriosis and a total of 10 women without endometriosis, adenomyosis or leiomyoma were included in this study. The eutopic endometrial cells, which were obtained from the menstrual blood at menstrual cycle day 2 to 4, were cultured in vitro for approximately 2 weeks, subsequently the putative very small stem cells were separated by Percoll density gradient method and were cultured. The expressions of OCT-4 and CXCR4 were analyzed by real time RT-PCR. Results: The eutopic endometrial cells of the group of endometriosis compared with the control group showed the different morphological characteristics in vitro; more commonly heterogeneous supportive cells, very small round cells less than 3 m and 5~15 m sized hyperchromatic round cells. After the separation of very small round cells by Percoll density gradient method, these cells showed the several characteristics of stem cells; self-renewal, asymmetric cell division, colony formation and embryoid body-like formation. Also These cells showed the similar characteristics of very small embryonic-like stem cells; the mobile cells smaller than erythrocyte, the cell migration or adhesion to supportive cells, the sphere formation by cell aggregation and the formation of new differentiated cell by cell fusion. The expressions of OCT-4 and CXCR4 in the group of endometriosis are respectively 5.66 times and 17.69 times as high as the control group (P<0.05).

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endometriosisadenomyosis

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