Leukemia inhibitory factor increases the proliferation of human endometrial stromal cells and expression of genes related to pluripotency

Background: Concerning the low population of human endometrial mesenchymal cells within the tissue and their potential application in the clinic and tissue engineering, some researches have been focused on their in vitro expansion.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) as a proliferative factor on the expansion and proliferation of human endometrial stromal cells.
Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, the isolated and cultured human endometrial stromal cells from women at ovulatory phase aged 20-35 years, after fourth passage were divided into control and LIF-treated groups. In the experimental group, the endometrial cells were treated by 10 ng/ml LIF in culture media and the cultured cells without adding LIF considered as control group. Both groups were evaluated and compared for proliferation rate using MTT assay, for CD90 marker by flow cytometric analysis and for the expression of Oct4, Nanog, PCNA and LIFr genes using real-time RT-PCR.
Results: The proliferation rate of control and LIF-treated groups were 1.17±0.17 and 1.61±0.06 respectively and there was a significant increase in endometrial stromal cell proliferation following in vitro treatment by LIF compared to control group (p=0.049). The rate of CD90 positive cells was significantly increased in LIF-treated group (98.96±0.37%) compared to control group (94.26±0.08%) (p=0.0498). Also, the expression ratio of all studied genes was significantly increased in the LIF-treated group compared to control group (p=0.0479).
Conclusion: The present study showed that LIF has a great impact on proliferation, survival, and maintenance of pluripotency of human endometrial stromal cells and it could be applicable in cell therapies.

Keywords
Endometrium; Cell proliferation; Gene expression; Leukemia inhibitory factor; Stromal cells