E-Poster Presentation ESA-SRB-ANZBMS 2021

Novel endometrial epithelial organoids for modelling gynaecological disease (#606)

Caitlin E Filby 1 2 , Katherine A Wyatt 1 2 , Kate Tyson 2 3 , Caroline E Gargett 1 2
  1. The Ritchie Centre and Centre for Reproductive Health, Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Clayton, VICTORIA, Australia
  2. Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  3. Gynaecology Services, Monash Health, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

Endometrial epithelial organoids (EMO) are an important tool for gynaecological research, but have been limited by generation from 1) invasively acquired tissues, often from advanced disease states and 2) from women who are not taking hormones, thus excluding 50% of reproductive age(d) women. Here we sought to overcome these limitations by generating endometrial epithelial organoids from 1) menstrual fluid (MF; MFO) using a method enabling concurrent isolation of menstrual fluid supernatant, endometrial stromal cells and leukocytes and 2) from biopsies and hysterectomy samples from women taking hormonal medication (EMO-H). MF was collected in a menstrual cup for 4-6 hours on day 2 of menstruation, biopsies and hysterectomies were obtained during laparoscopic surgery. Organoids were generated from all sample types and their proliferation and cell surface markers were characterized. Flow cytometry markers included Epithelial cell adhesion molecule, Neural-cadherin and Stage-Specific Embryonic Antigen-1. MFO and EMO-H replicated EMO; all showed low levels of expression of the endometrial basalis epithelial cell marker SSEA-1 and had similar rates of cellular proliferation. Our results demonstrate that MFO and EMO-H are novel organoids that replicate standard EMO with the advantage of being derived   1) non-invasively, whilst also enabling concurrent isolation of other menstrual fluid components and 2) from 50% of the population that currently are not being studied with standard methods. Thus, MFO and EMO-H are likely to prove invaluable tools for gynaecological research, enabling population wide assessment of endometrial health including from adolescents.