Fig. 4

Organoids develop from SSEA-1⁺ cells and reproduce the phenotype of the epithelium. a Morphologic change and immunofluorescence analyses of SSEA-1⁺ and SUSD2⁺ cells embedded in Matrigel and in suspension culture. Scale bars, 50 µm in light microscopy images, 100 µm in confocal images. b H&E staining for organoids from SSEA-1⁺ cells. Scale bars, 200 µm in 10X, 100 µm in 20X. c The Cytokeratin, Vimentin and ER immunoexpression in the endometrium of proliferative phase and SSEA-1⁺-organoids. Scale bars, 100 µm in endometrium, 50 µm in SSEA-1⁺-organoids. d qPCR analyses for the expressions of OCT-4, SOX2, NANOG, E-cadherin, CD13, EpCAM, CD9 and ER in SSEA-1⁺ cells and organoids from SSEA-1.⁺ cells. Expression normalized to β-actin (n = 3 donors; two-tailed unpaired t-test, n.s., non-significant, * P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001)