Isolation and Characterization of Human Endometrial Stem Cells and Evaluation of their Differentiation Potential

Human endometrial stem cells (hEnSCs) contain a cell population that are capable of self-renewal and show similar properties to mesenchymal stem cells. The aim of this research is to show that these cells can differentiate to different cell lineages. In this study, endometrial tissue obtained from patients cells were extracted enzymaticaly. The released cells were cultured in DMEM/F12 with 10% FBS. The flow cytometry analysis was done for CD105, CD90, CD146, CD31 and CD34 in the third passage. The adipogenic, osteogenic, neurogenic and endothelial differentiation was evaluated in the third passage after 21 days of induction with differentiation media. The flow cytometry analysis showed that EnSCs were positive for CD90, CD105 and CD146 and were negative for CD31 and CD34. Moreover, results showed that the hEnSCs can differentiate to osteocyte and adipocyte. This was confirmed by alizarin Red and oil-Red O staining. Immunocytochemistry assey show that the markers including Nestin, MAP2 and CD31 has been expressede in differentiated cells into neuron and endothelial. Results showed that hEnSCs appear to be able to provide a source of different kinds of cells that will be able to be used to further study the cellular differentiation processes and cell therapy.