Table 1.

Advantages and disadvantages of stem cells from different sources and their applications.

Sources	Disease/Model	Applications	Advantages	Disadvantages	Ref
Human EnMSCs	Patients with thin endometrium	Increased thickness of endometrium and regenerative capacity.	Non-invasive harvesting procedure, easy expansion in vitro, and no ethical considerations.	Unclear the fate and long-term efficiency.	[21]
Human EnSCs	A woman with IUA	Increased endometrial thickness and pregnancy potential.			[22]
Human EnSCs	The female BALB/c nude mice with the ovarian cancer	Inhibit the epithelial ovarian cancer.			[23]
Human MenSCs	Infertile women with severe AS	Increased thickness of endometrium and pregnancies.	Non-invasive operation to the human body, easy to collect, and not involved in ethical issues.	Difficult preservation and high contamination rate.	[24]
Human MenSCs	Infertile women with refractory IUA	No adverse reaction and increased the endometrial thickness, 41.7% pregnancy rate.			[25]
Human MenSCs	The ESCs were wounded with mifepristone	In the treatment of endometrial injury: activated the AKT and p38 MAPK signaling pathways.			[26]
Human MenSCs	The ESCs were fibrosis with TGFβ.	Inhibited myofibroblast differentiation of ESCs: activated Hippo/TAZ signal.			[27]
Human BMSCs	Human Asherman's syndrome (AS) and/or endometrial atrophy (EA)	Increased the volume and the thickness of endometrium, decreased intrauterine adhesion scores.	Sufficient sources; easy to obtain; great cell proliferation ability; no immune rejection.	Affected the psychology of both the donors and the recipients; Huge individual differences in the proliferation, survival, differentiation and paracrine capacity; Usually lead to infection after implantation.	[28]
Human bone marrow-derived stem cells (BMDSCs)	Human with refractory AS or EA	Increased menstrual flow and pregnancies.			[29]
Rat BMSCs	Rat AS model	70% conceived rate.			[30]
Human bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMNCs)	Patients with AS	Improved pregnancies and live births: downregulated ΔNp63 expression.			[31]
Human BMNCs	Women with AS	Restored endometrium.			[32]
Human UC-MSCs	Patient with IUA	Ten of the 26 patients had become pregnant, and eight of them had delivered live babies.	Lower immunogenicity, higher proliferation and self-renewal ability; extensive sources, no ethical disputes, no harm to the donor when obtaining the cells.	Lack of large animal data; few clinical applications.	[33]
Human UC-MSCs	Patients with IUA or cesarean scar diverticulum	Improved safety for poor healing after uterine injury.			[34]
Human UC-MSCs	Rat AS model	Increased blood supply; inhibited fibration; and restored the fertility.			[35]
Human ADSCs	Infertile women with severe AS	Increased menstrual flow and endometrial thickness, embryo transferred successfully.	Higher proliferative capacity and anti-aging ability; Greater secretion capacity; many obtaining ways and easy operation process; less limitation on ethics.	No standardized method for in vitro extraction; Activity decreases with age	[36]
Rat ADSCs	Rat AS model	Decreased inflammation and fibrosis and increased vascular proliferation.			[37]
Human perivascular stem cells (HPVSCs)	Mouse AS model	Ameliorated compromised uterine environments: facilitated HIF1α-dependent angiogenesis.	Relative higher purity; stronger osteogenic ability.	Harsh extraction conditions.	[38]
Human amniotic epithelial cells (HAECs)	Mouse AS model	Increased the endometrium and the number of endometrial glands, reduced fibrosis, generated microvessels.	Rich sources; convenient obtaining condition; no ethical issues; low immunogenicity; no tumorigenicity	Little basic researches.	[39]