Short-term culture of peritoneum explants confirms attachment of endometrium to intact peritoneal mesothelium

Craig A. Witz, C A Witz, Witz CA, M. Thomas, M R Thomas, Thomas MR, Montoya-Rodriguez IA, I A Montoya-Rodriguez, Iris A Montoya-Rodriguez, Nair AS, A S Nair, Centonze VE, V E Centonze, Victoria E. Centonze, R S Schenken, Schenken RS, Robert S. Schenken
Fertility and Sterility · 2001 · vol. 75(2) , pp. 385–390 · doi:10.1016/s0015-0282(00)01699-x · PMID:11172844 · W2138001589
article OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 86 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This study demonstrated that endometrium can successfully attach to intact peritoneal mesothelium when cultured as explants for a short period.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

ObjectiveTo evaluate the initial adhesion of endometrium to the peritoneum.DesignDescriptive study using light and confocal laser-scanning microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and transmission electron microscopy.SettingUniversity-based laboratory.Patient(s)Women without endometriosis undergoing surgery for benign conditions.Intervention(s)None.Main outcome measure(s)Explants of peritoneum (n = 20), prepared from four patients, were cultured for 1 hour with mechanically dispersed proliferative or secretory endometrium. Peritoneum was cultured with endometrium from the same patient. Specimens were fixed and serially sectioned for hematoxylin and eosin stain, immunohistochemistry using an anti-cytokeratin monoclonal antibody, and transmission electron microscopy.Result(s)In 17 of 20 explants, endometrium was adherent to intact mesothelium. There was no evidence of transmesothelial invasion at any sites of attachment. Although in most cases endometrium was adherent to mesothelium via endometrial stroma, there were many sites of endometrial epithelium-mesothelium attachment. Confocal laser scanning microscopy demonstrated an intact monolayer of cytokeratin-positive cells below the sites of endometrial implantation. Transmission electron microscopy demonstrated intact, viable, mesothelial cells below sites of attachment.Conclusion(s)This study demonstrates that endometrium rapidly adheres to intact peritoneal mesothelium. In addition, this study demonstrates that endometrial epithelial cells, as well as stroma, can attach to mesothelium. Further studies are needed that characterize the mechanism of endometrial-mesothelial cell adhesion.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

MeSH descriptors

Cell Adhesion Endometrium Endometrium Peritoneum Peritoneum Coloring Agents Culture Techniques Eosine Yellowish-(YS) Epithelial Cells Epithelial Cells Epithelium Epithelium Female Hematoxylin Humans Immunohistochemistry Keratins Keratins Microscopy, Confocal Microscopy, Electron

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (23)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-07-26T06:08:39.051465+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:13:30.513821+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK