Feasibility of serum-free culture in isolating endometriotic stem cells

Objective: To explore a novel approach for the isolation of human endometriotic stem cells for further study in the stem cell theory of endometriosis. Materials and Methods: A serum-free medium (SFM) was used to isolate the stem cells from ectopic endometrium, eutopic endometrium, and normal endometrium in vitro, and the biological properties including clonogenicity, multipotency, and invasive ability were examined and compared. Results: The ectopic endometrium-derived stem cells cultured in SFM showed higher clone-forming efficiency and sphere formation efficiency (SFE) than eutopic endometrium and normal endometrium, they all can differentiate to endothelial cell and fibroblast. and the ectopic endometrium-derived stem cells also have stronger invasive ability than eutopic endometrium-derived and normal endometrium-derived stem cells. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, the authors can conclude that human endometriotic stem cells can be isolated in SFM effectively and ectopic endometrium-derived stein cells are probably associated with endometriosis.