Genes Relating to Biological Processes of Endometriosis: Expression Changes Common to a Mouse Model and Patients

Abstract

Endometriosis is one of the most common gynecological diseases in women of reproductive age. Retrograde menstruation is considered a major reason for the development of endometriosis. The syngeneic transplantation mouse model is an endometriosis animal model that is considered to mimic retrograde menstruation. However, it remains poorly understood which genetic signatures of endometriosis are reflected in this model. Here, we employed an in vivo syngeneic mouse endometriosis model and identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the ectopic and eutopic tissues using microarray analysis. Three gene expression profile datasets, GSE5108, GSE7305, and GSE11691, were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database and DEGs between ectopic and eutopic tissues from the same patients were identified. Gene ontology analysis of the DEGs revealed that biological processes including cell adhesion, the inflammatory response, the response to mechanical stimulus, cell proliferation, and extracellular matrix organization were enriched in both the model and patients. Of the 195 DEGs common to the model and patients, 154 showed the same expression pattern, and 28 of these 154 DEGs came up when PubMed was searched for each gene along with the terms “endometriosis” and “development”. This is the first comparison of the DEGs of the mouse syngeneic endometriosis model and those of patients, and we identified the biological processes common to the model and patients at the transcriptional level. This model may be useful to evaluate the efficacy of drugs which target these biological processes.

Comparative Analysis of Shapley Values Enhances Transcriptomics Insights across Some Common Uterine Pathologies

“…Further, a possible role of the degradation and remodeling of the extracellular matrix in endometriosis datasets has been revealed in our study. Endometriotic tissues have been shown to be significantly associated to extracellular matrix reorganization in some studies, which may explain some of the molecular mechanisms underlying the progression of the disease [47][48][49][50]. Regarding uterine leiomyomas, we were able to detect some significantly enriched biological processes that have been previously reported in association with the disease such as hormone secretion and cell signaling [51].…”

Comparative Analysis of Shapley Values Enhances Transcriptomics Insights across Some Common Uterine Pathologies

“…Further, a possible role of the degradation and remodeling of the extracellular matrix in endometriosis datasets has been revealed in our study. Endometriotic tissues have been shown to be significantly associated to extracellular matrix reorganization in some studies, which may explain some of the molecular mechanisms underlying the progression of the disease [ 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 ]. Regarding uterine leiomyomas, we were able to detect some significantly enriched biological processes that have been previously reported in association with the disease such as hormone secretion and cell signaling [ 69 ].…”