An aberrant immunologic mechanism has been suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. Genetic alterations in the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) may lead to important defects in gene activation that principally affect immune function. We have hypothesized a possible relationship between endometriosis and/or infertility and the VDR polymorphisms (ApaI, TaqI, FokI, and BmsI). The study was a case-control study including 132 women with endometriosis-related infertility, 62 women with idiopathic infertility, and 133 controls. VDR polymorphisms were studied by restriction fragment length polymorphism. We found relatively similar VDR polymorphism genotype frequencies in cases and controls. When patients with minimal/mild and moderate/severe endometriosis were studied separately, no difference was found. When we compared infertile groups with and without endometriosis there was no statistically significant difference. The data suggest that VDR polymorphisms did not play an important role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis and/or infertility in the Brazilian women studied.
We conclude that the PC-18 extract may be effective for the treatment of CRF in patients with a variety of solid tumors. A conditioning effect, which was observed in patients who had a beneficial effect of PC-18 on CRF, may explain the better than expected fatigue scores of the placebo-treated patients.
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