TY - JOUR TI - Transplantation of human amnion epithelial cells improves endometrial regeneration in rat model of intrauterine adhesions AU - Ouyang, Xiaolan AU - You, Shuang AU - zhang, Yulin AU - Zhang, Chanyu AU - Zhang, Guanghui AU - Shao, Xiaoyan AU - He, Fan AU - Hu, Lina T2 - Stem Cells and Development AB - Intrauterine adhesions (IUA) is characterized by the injury of endometrium due to curettage and/or endometritis. The loss of functional endometrium in uterine cavity usually results in hypomenorrhea, amenorrhea, infertility, and/or recurrent pregnancy loss. Recently, stem cells transplantation has been applied to promote the endometrial regeneration. Human amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs) have been shown to have stem cell characteristics. In this study, we found that PKH26-labeled hAECs mainly distributed in the basal layer of endometrium after transplantation. And hAECs transplantation, including uterine injection and tail vein injection, could increase pregnancy rate and the number of embryos in rat model of IUA. Moreover, hAECs transplantation was demonstrated to increase the endometrial thickness, promote the proliferation of glands and blood vessels, and decrease fibrotic areas in the endometrium. The immunohistochemical and qPCR analysis showed the up-regulated expression of growth factors, such as basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) after hAECs transplantation; and the down-regulated expression of collagen type I alpha 1 (COL1A1), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), all of which are associated with the extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition after hAECs transplantation. The mRNA sequencing indicated that platelet-derived growth factor-C (PDGF-C), thrombospondin-1 (THBS1), connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), Wnt5a and Snai2 were significantly modulated in treatment groups. These results indicate that hAECs transplantation promote endometrial regeneration and the restoration of fertility in rat model of IUA. DA - 2020/08/09/ PY - 2020 DO - 10.1089/scd.2019.0246 DP - liebertpub.com (Atypon) SN - 1547-3287 UR - https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/scd.2019.0246 Y2 - 2020/08/12/17:36:47 ER -