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Endometriosis is a common female gynecological disease that is characterized by the presence of functional endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity. At present, many animal models have been established. However, previous studies consistently use human endometrial tissue implanted in the subcutaneous or abdominal cavity for modeling and rarely use endometrial cells. In the present study, we ascertained whether immortalized stromal and/or epithelial endometrial cells are able to induce subcutaneous endometriosis in nude mice. Mixed human immortalized endometriosis stromal and epithelial cells, but not the cells of Group 1 or Group 2, were successfully constructed and led to endometriotic-like lesions. The endometriosis-like lesions observed in nude mice consisted of endometriosis-like glands lined with columnar epithelial cells and surrounded by stromal cells in the fibrous fatty connective tissue. Immunofluorescence analysis showed that glandular epithelial cells were intensely stained for E-cadherin and cytokeratin 7, and surrounding stromal cells were mildly stained for neprilysin (CD10) and vimentin. Moreover, the cells present in the endometriosis-like lesions were of human origin. Our data indicate that the mixture of human immortalized endometriosis stromal cells and epithelial cells is able to establish subcutaneous endometriosis lesions in nude mice. This model could be used to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the occurrence and development of endometriosis.

Additional File 2: Table S1. The primer sequences used in qRT-PCR.

Additional File 1: Figure S1. Asprosin suppresses the production and secretion of IL-1β and IL-6. A, B THP-1 macrophage-derived foam cells were transfected with LV-Mock or LV-Asprosin for 72 h (n=3). A Measurement of IL-1β and IL-6 mRNA expression by qRT-PCR. B The cell culture supernatant was collected and then subjected to ELISA for detecting the levels of IL-1β and IL-6. Data are the mean ± SD. **P < 0.01.