Cell cultures isolated from human endometrium by enzyme digestion consisted of highly viable fibroblast-like mesenchymal cells expressing CD90, CD73, and CD105. During passage 1, the cultures contained a small fraction of cytokeratin-7(+) epithelial cells that disappeared by passage 2. The cultures from the endometrium could be induced to adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation in vitro. These findings suggest that human endometrium is a convenient source of biomaterial for minimally invasive isolation of cultures that exhibit typical morphology and immunophenotypic profile of resident multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells retain high viability in vitro.
Keywords: endometrium; immunophenotype; multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells; viability.