August 2026

OB-GYN

NOVEL STEM CELL PLATFORM IMPROVES STUDY OF ENDOMETRIOSIS

Featuring: Julie Kim, PhD

As detailed in a recent study published in Science Advances, scientists led by Julie Kim, PhD, have developed a platform that uses induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients with endometriosis to accurately model stromal cell differentiation and hormone responsiveness in humans.

Critical Context

Mechanistic and translational studies about endometriosis have aimed to use human endometrial stromal cells but they’ve been constrained due to limited tissue availability, variability in donor cycle stage and the lifespan of stromal cells — until now.
A unique feature of iPSCs is that they retain the patient’s genetic background, allowing scientists to model disease using cells that carry the inherited genetic risk factors associated with endometriosis.

A Platform Making Better Research Possible

The platform allows the team to study an individual’s genetic background in a way that was not previously possible, Dr. Kim explains. “We can make cell types that are involved in the disease and to follow how they develop, behave and interact with other cells.”

To validate their platform, the scientists compared gene expression in their iPSC-derived endometrial stromal fibroblasts from patients with endometriosis to previously published gene expression analyses of adult endometrial stromal cells from endometriosis.

From this analysis, they observed a significant number of similar pathways associated with endometriosis. Interestingly, the iPSC-derived cells showed a distinct difference in the epigenetic pathways compared to adult cells from endometriosis.

“Our observations suggest that endometriosis is characterized not only of genetic susceptibility but also of persistent inflammatory signals that reprogram how genes are regulated,” Dr. Kim says.

Looking Forward

​Dr. Kim adds that her team is now using the iPSCs to develop macrophages to study if they promote increased inflammation in endometriosis and fail to clear diseased tissues. They are also differentiating iPSCs to nociceptor sensory neurons to better understand why patients with endometriosis experience increased pain.

“Now we have a system where we can manipulate different factors and study them in a controlled environment, giving us an unprecedented opportunity to understand how endometriosis develops and progresses. It’s an exciting step forward for the field,” Dr. Kim says.

Read the study.

Get more details on NM Newsroom.

Hannah McDowell, a graduate student in the Northwestern University Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences, was lead author of the study.

Co-authors include Shiyang Sun, PhD, and Ross McNally, PhD, postdoctoral fellows in the Kim laboratory; K. Grace Foley, PhD; Angel Alvarez, PhD; Christina Boots, MD, MSCI; Magdy Milad, MD, MS; and Cassandra Huerta, MS.

This work was supported by the Friends of Prentice, the Endometriosis Foundation, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National institute of Child Health and Human Development grant R01HD114195 and T32 training grant HD094699, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant UH3 ES029073, and NCI NIH T32 training grant CA009560.
Julie Kim, PhD, the Susy Y. Hung Research Professor and Professor of Reproductive Science in Medicine ​

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