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Updated: Jul 7, 2026
Two Methods for Establishing Primary Human Endometrial Stromal Cells from Hysterectomy Specimens
Published on: May 23, 2014
Identification of surface markers for prospective isolation of human endometrial stromal colony-forming cells
K E Schwab1, P Hutchinson, C E Gargett
1Centre for Women's Health Research, Monash Institute of Medical Research and Monash University Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
Background:
Human endometrium is a highly regenerative tissue. We hypothesized that the source of endometrial stromal and vascular regeneration is a resident stromal stem/progenitor cell population. Putative human endometrial stromal stem/progenitor cells have been identified using clonal assays, a retrospective functional stem cell assay. Therefore, the aim of this study was to screen potential stem cell markers for the prospective isolation of human endometrial stromal stem/progenitor cells and to determine their capacity to identify colony-forming stromal cells.
Methods:
Single-cell suspensions of human endometrial stromal cells were sorted using fluorescence-activated cell sorting into positive and negative populations based on STRO-1, CD133, CD90 or CD146 expression for clonal assays. All markers were immunolocalized in human endometrium.
Results:
Small populations (2-9%) of human endometrial stromal cells expressed each of the markers. Only CD146(+) cells were enriched for colony-forming cells, and CD90(hi) cells showed a trend for greater enrichment compared with CD90(lo) cells. STRO-1 and CD146 were localized to perivascular cells of the endometrium. CD90 was strongly expressed by functionalis stroma and perivascular cells, but only weakly expressed in the basalis stroma. CD133 was expressed by epithelial cells of the endometrium, rather than by stroma or perivascular cells.
Conclusions:
This study identified CD146 as a marker of colony-forming human endometrial stromal cells supporting the concept that human endometrium contains a population of candidate stromal stem/progenitor cells.
