Department of Health Sciences and Technology, GAIHST, Gachon University, Incheon, 21999, Republic of Korea.
Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, Gachon University, Incheon, 406-840, Republic of Korea.
Stem Cell Res Ther. 2023 Dec 20;14(1):379. doi: 10.1186/s13287-023-03616-w.
The endometrium is a dynamic tissue that undergoes cyclic changes in response to ovarian hormones during the menstrual cycle. These changes are crucial for pregnancy establishment and maintenance. Endometrial stem cells play a pivotal role in endometrial regeneration and repair by differentiating into various cell types within the endometrium. However, their involvement in endometrial disorders such as endometriosis, infertility, and endometrial cancer is still not fully understood yet. Traditional bulk sequencing methods have limitations in capturing heterogeneity and complexity of endometrial stem cell populations. To overcome these limitations, recent single-cell analysis techniques, including single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq), single-cell ATAC sequencing (scATAC-Seq), and spatial transcriptomics, have emerged as valuable tools for studying endometrial stem cells. In this review, although there are still many technical limitations that require improvement, we will summarize the current state-of-the-art single-cell analysis techniques for endometrial stem cells and explore their relevance to related diseases. We will discuss studies utilizing various single-cell analysis platforms to identify and characterize distinct endometrial stem cell populations and investigate their dynamic changes in gene expression and epigenetic patterns during menstrual cycle and differentiation processes. These techniques enable the identification of rare cell populations, capture heterogeneity of cell populations within the endometrium, and provide potential targets for more effective therapies.
子宫内膜是一种动态组织，在月经周期中会对卵巢激素产生周期性变化。这些变化对妊娠的建立和维持至关重要。子宫内膜干细胞通过在子宫内膜内分化为各种细胞类型，在子宫内膜的再生和修复中起着关键作用。然而，它们在子宫内膜疾病（如子宫内膜异位症、不孕和子宫内膜癌）中的作用仍未被完全理解。传统的批量测序方法在捕捉子宫内膜干细胞群体的异质性和复杂性方面存在局限性。为了克服这些限制，最近的单细胞分析技术，包括单细胞 RNA 测序（scRNA-Seq）、单细胞 ATAC 测序（scATAC-Seq）和空间转录组学，已成为研究子宫内膜干细胞的有价值的工具。在这篇综述中，尽管仍然存在许多需要改进的技术限制，但我们将总结当前子宫内膜干细胞的单细胞分析技术的最新进展，并探讨它们与相关疾病的相关性。我们将讨论利用各种单细胞分析平台的研究，以鉴定和描述不同的子宫内膜干细胞群体，并研究它们在月经周期和分化过程中基因表达和表观遗传模式的动态变化。这些技术能够识别稀有细胞群体，捕捉子宫内膜内细胞群体的异质性，并为更有效的治疗提供潜在目标。
