Human-Specific Model of Endometriosis Shows Promise for Personalized Treatments 

Study in a Sentence: Researchers developed a new human-specific model of endometriosis for reliably studying disease mechanisms and testing novel drugs.

Healthy for Humans: Endometriosis is a severe inflammatory condition that impacts approximately 190 million women of reproductive age globally. Current drug treatments and surgical interventions are available for some but not all symptoms, and outcomes vary greatly among patients. This organoid model made from the cells of human endometriosis lesions provides a reliable tool to study the disease and develop better, more personalized treatments.

Redefining Research: Endometriosis research has relied on 2D cell lines, primary cells, and animal tests that fail to reliably model the physiological features of human endometrial function and do not effectively translate to better patient outcomes. This 3D endometriosis organoid model, using epithelial cells from patient lesions, is better suited to study the disease. Researchers demonstrated that the model accurately replicates the biological response to estrogen and progesterone, which both play a role in the disease, and can be used for testing personalized drug treatments.