Because of the ethical difficulties of isolating ESCs from disease-free healthy women, we routinely used ESCs isolated from the patients in surgical cases. ESC lines are commercially available (T-HESC, ATCC) and maybe useful tool to investigate the role of PGRMC1 in decidualization, as you pointed out. However, the cell lines are also established from the endometrium of leiomyoma and immortalized by transfection with hTERT. Therefore, we believe that ESCs used in this study are no different than the above cells and cell lines in examining the role of PGRMC1.In the future, we plan to use several ESCs and their cell lines to clarify the precise mechanisms of PGRMC1 downregulation and decidualization.
The conclusion has been verified by other 2-3 articles, and the design of this study is not rigorous enough. It is suggested to add cell lines or normal endometrial cells for verification. If further mechanism exploration is carried out, the research will be more complete and persuasive.