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compartments of the endometrium [ 19 , 20 ]. They were able to differentiate in vitro
into adipogenic and osteogenic lineages and developed human endometrium on
subcutaneous injection in NOD-SCID mice [ 11 , 12 , 19 ].
10.2.5 Endometrial Regenerative Cells (ERC)
Recent studies identified the presence of stem -cell like population in menstrual
blood [ 21 , 22 ]. These cells termed as Endometrial Regenerative Cells (ERC), are
plastic adherent and were able to maintain in tissue culture for >68 population dou-
blings. They expressed known stem cell markers such as Oct-4, SSEA-4, c-kit,
CD9, CD29, CD41a, CD44, CD59, CD73, CD90 and CD105. Proliferative poten-
tial of these cells was significantly higher when compared to umbilical cord derived
MSCs with a doubling time of 19.4 h. ERCs exhibited a differentiation potential to
nine varied lineages such as cardiomyocytic, respiratory epithelial, neurocytic,
myocytic, endothelial, pancreatic, hepatic, adipocytic, and osteogenic [ 23 ]. Studies
suggest that ERCs are easily expandable in culture and thus could serve as plausible
tools in future regenerative medicine.
Fig. 10.2 Isolation and culture of endometrial stem cells. The image represents stepwise isolation
procedures of endometrial stem cells by two different methods; (a) direct dilution and selection of
colony forming units and (b) single cell cloning of culture grown (passage 5) stromal cells
K.G. Aghila Rani and T. Madan