Fig. 11

Enrichment of uterine stem cells and detection of ER, PR and FSHR on stem cells. a H&E stained uterine cells smears (from progesterone treated mice) obtained after spinning cells at 200 g show presence of cells with abundant pink cytoplasm b Small sized, spherical stem cells with high nucleo-cytoplasmic ratio enriched by spinning the supernatant at 1000 g (c). The stem cells (broken circle) remain floating after overnight culture along with red blood cells (arrow) whereas the somatic cells get attached to the surface of culture dish. d The stem cells thus collected were subjected to RT-PCR analysis. Results show that the cells expressing Oct-4A also express ER, PR as well as both alternatively spliced FSHR isoforms R1 and R3. e Western blotting results showed presence of all 4 alternatively spliced FSHR isoforms. Scale bar 20 μm