Isolation and characterization of human MMSP and LMSP.

<p>(A) (Left upper) Distribution of the SP and MP cells within all Hoechst 33342-stained living cells isolated from human myometrium. (Right upper) Addition of 50 µM reserpine resulted in the disappearance of the MMSP fraction. (Left lower) Distribution of SP and MP cells isolated from human leiomyoma. (Right lower) Addition of 50 µM reserpine resulted in the disappearance of the LMSP fraction. (B) Average % SP of normal myometrium and leiomyomas from 10 different patients are shown (2.07%±0.46 vs. 1.19%±0.23, <i>P</i><0.05). Error bars represent SEM. (C) mRNA expression of ovarian steroid receptors and (D) smooth muscle cell markers was examined by real-time RT-PCR and normalized for GAPDH expression. Each bar indicates the mean ± SEM of the relative expression obtained from three independent experiments using three individual samples. *, <i>P</i><0.05.