Table 1 In vitro models of the human FRT used before the establishment of organoid systems.

From: Organoid systems to study the human female reproductive tract and pregnancy

Cell culture system

Tissue

Model

Referencea

2D

Ovaries

Tissue-derived ovarian surface epithelial cultures

[7,8,9]

Immortalized ovarian surface epithelial cultures

[10,11,12]

Fallopian tubes

Tissue-derived epithelial cultures

[13]

Immortalized epithelial cultures

[14,15,16]

Endometrium

Tissue-derived epithelial cultures

[17,18,19]

Tissue-derived stromal cultures

[18, 20]

Tissue-derived endothelial cultures

[21,22,23]

iPSC-derived stromal cultures

[24]

Carcinoma-derived cell lines (HEC-1, Ishikawa, RL95–2, St-1b, ECC-1)

[25,26,27,28,29]

Cervix

Tissue-derived epithelial cultures

[30,31,32, 34, 35]

HPV16-immortalized epithelial cell line

[36]

Carcinoma-derived cell lines (HeLa,SiHa,C33a,CaSki,ME-180)

[33, 37]

3D

Ovaries

Tissue-derived epithelial spheroid cultures

[38, 39]

Fallopian tubes

Tissue-derived epithelial spheroid cultures

[40]

iPSC-derived epithelial cell 3D cultures

[41]

Endometrium

Tissue-derived epithelial cell 3D cultures

[42]

Organotypic cultures from endometrial tissue

[43,44,45,46]

Mesenchymal-derived epithelial-like cell 3D cultures

[47]

Spheroids derived from endometrial adenocarcinoma cell lines

[48]

Spheroids of mesenchymal stem cells derived from menstrual blood/endometrial fragments

[49]

Cervix

Organotypic cultures from primary cervical epithelial cells

[50, 51]

Organotypic cultures from HPV16-immortalized cells

[50]

Tissue explants

Ovaries

Ovarian tissue explants

[52]

Fallopian tubes

Fimbria explants

[53, 54]

Endometrium

Non-pregnant endometrium explants

[55, 56]

1st trimester decidua parietalis explants

[57, 58]

Cervix

Cervical explants

[59]

  1. A summary of the different in vitro tools available for studying the biology of human FRT (excluding the recently derived organoid models). The models have been grouped according to the culture type: 2D monolayer cultures, 3D models and tissue explants. A few representative references are cited per type of model.
  2. aReprentative references of each model.
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