No abstract

The chronic female disease endometriosis causes debilitating pain and lowered fertility. The aetiology is unknown, but indications of an infectious agent are present. This study investigates the possible involvement of a pathogenic virus in endometriosis patients and controls. DNA was purified from biopsies and subjected to highly sensitive PCR tests detecting human papillomavirus (HPV) types, the herpes family viruses HSV-1 and -2, CMV, and EBV, and the polyomaviruses SV40, JCV, BKV, KIV, WUV, and MCV. The prevalence of pathogenic DNA viruses in the human endometrium was generally low (0-10%). The virus prevalence was found to vary slightly when comparing the endometrium of healthy women and women with endometriosis. However, these were not significant differences, and no viruses were identified in endometriotic lesions. These results do not point towards any evidence that endometriosis is caused by these viruses.

Endometriosis displays some features that resemble malignant processes, including invasive growth, resistance to apoptosis and distant implantation. The objective of this study was to investigate whether gene alterations that are frequent in endometrial and/or ovarian cancers contribute to the pathogenesis of endometriosis. Biopsies were obtained from ectopic endometriosis lesions from 23 patients with revised American Fertility Score stage 1 (n= 1), 2 (n= 10), 3 (n= 11) or 4 (n= 1) endometriosis. Six genes (APC, CDKN2A, PYCARD, RARB, RASSF1 and ESR1) were analyzed for promoter hypermethylation using methylation-specific melting curve analysis, and 9 genes (BRAF, HRAS, NRAS, CTNNB1, CDK4, FGFR3, PIK3CA, TP53 and PTEN) were analyzed for mutations using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and direct sequencing. An oncogenic mutation in KRAS (c.34G > T; p.G12C) was detected in a single lesion. No gene alterations were found in the remaining samples. Our data suggest that genetic and epigenetic events contributing to endometrial and ovarian cancers are rare in endometriosis. However, other proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes should be tested for alterations in order to identify the molecular basis of the susceptibility of endometriosis to malignant transformation.

UAE is a method with a high technical success rate. The treatment has good effect on fibroid volume reduction and clinical symptoms. Severe post-procedural pain occurs generally in successful bilateral embolizations, but complications and adverse events are otherwise few and minor. UAE represents a promising new method for treating uterine fibroid-related symptoms.

Endometriosis is a painful chronic female disease defined by the presence of endometrial tissue implants in ectopic (Ec) locations. The pathogenesis is much debated, and type-I interferons (IFNs) could be involved. The expression of genes of the type-I IFN response were profiled by a specific PCR array of RNA obtained from Ec and eutopic (Eu) endometrium collected from nine endometriosis patients and nine healthy control women. Transcriptional expression levels of selected IFN-regulated and housekeeping genes (HKGs) were investigated by real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR). Stably expressed HKGs for valid normalization of transcriptional studies of endometrium and endometriosis have not yet been published. Here, seven HKGs were evaluated for stability using the GeNorm and NormFinder software. A normalization factor based on HMBS, TBP and YWHAZ expression was suitable for normalization of qRT-PCR studies of Eu versus Ec endometrium. In the endometrial cell lines HEC1A, HEC1B, Ishikawa and RL95-2, HMBS and HPRT1 were the most stably expressed. The IFN-specific PCR array indicated significantly different expression of the genes BST2, COL16A1, HOXB2 and ISG20 between the endometrial tissue types. However, by correctly normalized qRT-PCR, levels of BST2, COL16A1 and the highly type-I IFN-stimulated genes ISG12A and 6-16 displayed insignificant variations. Conversely, HOXB2 and ISG20 transcriptions were significantly reduced in endometriosis lesions compared with endometrium from endometriosis patients and healthy controls. In conclusion, appropriate HKGs for normalization of qRT-PCR studies of endometrium and endometriosis have been identified here. Abolished expression of ISG20 and HOX genes could be important in endometriosis.