Evaluating the effect of conditioned medium from endometrial stem cells on endometriosis-derived endometrial stem cells

Endometriosis is a common, benign gynecological disease which is determined as an overspreading of endometrial tissue in exterior region of the uterine cavity. Evidence suggests that retrograde menstrual blood which contains mesenchymal stem cells with differential gene expression compared to healthy women may play a role in endometriosis creation. We aimed to identify whether the conditioned medium (CM) from menstrual blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MenSCs) of healthy women can affect the expression level of inflammatory and stemness genes of MenSCs from endometriosis women. Endometriosis-derived MenSCs (E-MenSCs) were treated with CM derived from healthy women’s MenSCs (non-endometriosis derived MenSCs [NE-MenSCs]). Some CD markers were analyzed by flow cytometer before and after treatment compared with NE-MenSCs, and the expression level of inflammatory and stemness genes was evaluated by real-time PCR. E-MenSCs show different morphology in vitro culture in comparison with NE-MenSCs, which were changed in the presence of CM, into a morphology more similar to normal cells and showed significant decrease expression of CD10 after CM treatment. In our results, the interleukin-1, cyclooxygenase-2, and hypoxia-inducible factor 1α as inflamaturay genes and octamer-binding transcription factor 4, NANOG, and sex determining region Y-box 2 as stemness genes showed significantly different expression level in E-MenSCs after treating with CM. Our study indicates that the expression level of some inflammatory- and stemness-related genes which have differential expression in E-MenSCs compared with NE-MenSCs, could be changed to normal status by using CM derived from NE-MenSCs.

Regulation of inflammatory mediator expression in bovine endometrial cells: effects of lipopolysaccharide, interleukin 1 beta, and tumor necrosis factor alpha

An abnormal uterine environment can influence maternal-fetal communication, conception rate and disrupt normal embryo development, thereby affecting fertility and the reproductive performance of dairy cows. Animal variability means that development of endometrial cell lines with appropriate characteristic are required. We evaluated the effect of an infectious agent (i.e., bacterial lipopolysaccharide; LPS) and proinflammatory mediators (i.e., Interleukin 1 beta; IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factor alpha; TNFα) on inflammatory mediator gene expression and production by bovine endometrial epithelial (bEEL) and stromal (bCSC) cell lines. Expression of CXCL8/IL8, IL1A, IL1B, and IL6 cytokine genes was significantly upregulated in both epithelial and stromal cells when treated with LPS and IL-1β. LPS treatment of epithelial cells (compared with treatment by IL-1β and TNFα) exhibited greater CXCL8/IL8, IL1A, IL1B, and IL6 cytokine gene expression. Whereas, in stromal cells, IL-1β treatment (compared with LPS and TNFα) exhibited greater CXCL8/IL8, IL1A, IL1B, and IL6 cytokine gene expression. Interestingly, bEEL and bCSC cells treated with IL-1β increased IL1B gene expression, suggesting that IL-1β may act unusually in an autocrine-positive feedback loop. Cytokine production was stimulated by these agents in both cell types. We suggest that the characteristics of these two cell lines make them excellent tools for the study of intrauterine environment.

High-throughput mRNA sequencing of stromal cells from endometriomas and endometrium

The aetiology of endometriosis is still unclear and to find mechanisms behind the disease development, it is important to study each cell type from endometrium and ectopic lesions independently. The objective of this study was to uncover complete mRNA profiles in uncultured stromal cells from paired samples of endometriomas and eutopic endometrium. High-throughput mRNA sequencing revealed over 1300 dysregulated genes in stromal cells from ectopic lesions, including several novel genes in the context of endometriosis. Functional annotation analysis of differentially expressed genes highlighted pathways related to cell adhesion, extracellular matrix-receptor interaction and complement and coagulation cascade. Most importantly, we found a simultaneous upregulation of complement system components and inhibitors, indicating major imbalances in complement regulation in ectopic stromal cells. We also performed in vitro experiments to evaluate the effect of endometriosis patients' peritoneal fluid (PF) on complement system gene expression levels, but no significant impact of PF on C3, CD55 and CFH levels was observed. In conclusion, the use of isolated stromal cells enables to determine gene expression levels without the background interference of other cell types. In the future, a new standard design studying all cell types from endometriotic lesions separately should be applied to reveal novel mechanisms behind endometriosis pathogenesis.