Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Apr;22(4):919-26.
doi: 10.1093/humrep/del456. Epub 2007 Jan 5.

Cells with haematopoietic stem cell phenotype in adult human endometrium: relevance to infertility?

L Lynch  1 , L Golden-Mason, M Eogan, C O'Herlihy, Cliona O'Farrelly
Affiliations

Cells with haematopoietic stem cell phenotype in adult human endometrium: relevance to infertility?

L Lynch et al. Hum Reprod. 2007 Apr.

Abstract

Background: Uterine lymphoid cell repertoires are specialized in order to meet the twin demands of successful pregnancy and local immunosurveillance. The possibility that some of these populations might differentiate locally from progenitor cells has been proposed.

Methods: Endometrial tissue from women with a history of infertility as well as fertile controls was examined for haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and lymphoid progenitors using three-colour flow cytometry.

Results: Significant populations of phenotypic HSCs (CD34+ CD45+ ) were detected in all samples, a high proportion of which co-expressed the differentiation marker CD45RA (45.7%), indicating ongoing differentiation. Almost 30% of uterine HSCs co-expressed CD56 and 44% co-expressed CD7, suggesting the presence of lymphoid progenitors. Small proportions expressed CD127 and CD122, receptors for interleukin (IL)-7 and IL-15, respectively. HSC numbers were similar in the endometrial samples from fertile and infertile women. However, the proportion co-expressing the natural killer (NK) antigen CD56 was significantly increased compared with HSCs found in the endometrium of fertile controls (P = 0.002).

Conclusions: This is the first demonstration of cells with an HSC phenotype in the human endometrium, and increased proportions of NK progenitors in endometrium of women with infertility suggests a dysregulation of this pathway that may contribute to infertility.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

  NODES
chat 1
twitter 2