A New Relevant Cellular Model of Uterine Leiomyoma: Method of Isolation and Prospects of Use

Uterine leiomyoma (UL) is a benign tumor of monoclonal origin developing from smooth muscle cells and containing varying amounts of fibrous connective tissue. Leiomyomas and myometrium are similar in cellular composition but differ in the cellular transcriptome profiles. A rapid and reliable method for isolating and culturing primary UL cells is described in this paper. Conditions for growing and maintaining a monolayer culture of UL cells in vitro were optimized. The effect of sex steroid hormones, estradiol and progesterone, on UL genetic markers was evaluated. To prevent the loss of driver mutations in the MED12 and HMGA2 genes, the use of the UL cell model cultured in a specialized nutrient medium with the addition of progesterone at the first passage was proposed.