Reproduction Abstracts

The human endometrium undergoes >400 cycles of growth, differentiation and shedding during a woman’s reproductive years. Endometrial regeneration is likely mediated by stem/progenitor cells. Emerging evidence suggests that disorders associated with abnormal endometrial proliferation (endometriosis, endometrial cancer) may involve endometrial stem/progenitor cells. In human endometrium, colony forming units (CFU), side population (SP) cells and tissue reconstituting ce...

Rare epithelial and stromal stem/progenitor cells (SPC) have been identified in the mouse endometrium. However the role of these SPC in endometrial regeneration is unclear due to the lack of a traceable marker. We used transgenic mice with reporter constructs for the stem cell marker telomerase reverse transcriptase (mTert) to identify and characterize mouse endometrial SPC. Endometrial mTert expression was examined by microscopy and flow cytometry in mice expressing GFP under...