The objective of the study was to observe the levels of the inflammasome and estrogen receptors alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ) in 17 individuals with stage III and IV endometriosis before surgical procedure.
Design:
It is a clinical control study.
Setting:
Academic tertiary care referral center.
Patients or Participants:
The patients were referred to undergo surgical management. The controls were individuals without endometriosis. The Institutional Research Board (IRB) of the University of Louisville approved the study. All the participants gave their informed consent to participate in the study.
Interventions:
Only 10 ml blood were taken from patients before surgery.
Measurements and Main Results:
We examined a panel of cytokines in the plasma of the participants undergoing surgery for endometriosis and compared it to control participants. The levels of cytokines were quantitatively measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent-assay (ELISA). Cytokines and chemokines were as follows: interleukins :IL 1-b pg/mL (control 20-50), IL6 pg/mL (control 30-60), IL8 pg/mL (control 20-60), IL15 pg/mL (control 15-30), transforming growth factor (TGF-b ng/mL) (control 20-40), tumor necrosis factor (TNFa pg/mL) (control 25-50), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF pg/mL) (control 20-90), interferon (IFN control 20-40), IFN-g pg/mL (15-40), ccK18 (M-30) U/L (control 68-132), ccK(M65) U/L (control 62-120). The median values of cytokines in the endometriosis cases were higher compared to controls as follows: IL1-b x 2, IL 6 x 0.7, IL8 x 3, IL15 x 2.5, TGF--b x 2, TNF-a x 3.5, VEGF x 4, and IFN-g x 2. ERβ (median) was 2.6 x higher when compared with ERα.
Conclusion:
A change of inflammatory markers in plasma leads to endometrial tissue inflammation. The ER appears to be a key to intracellular steroid metabolism since plasma levels of ER-a are lower when compared with normal values. The next step is to observe the changes of these biomarkers after surgery and to compare the results with the initial inflammasome and estrogen receptors.
Neuman, MG*1, Lichten, EG*2, Pasic, RG3, Quevedo, AG4, Chamseddine, PG4, Parikh, S5, Hanna, H6. 1Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto,, In Vitro Drug Safety and Biotechnology,, Toronto, ON, Canada; 2Gynecology, U.S. Doctors, Palm Beach, FL; 32. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women’s Health, Division of Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery, University of Louisville,, Louisville, KY; 42. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women’s Health, Division of Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery, aquevedo1286@gmail.com, Louisville, KY; 5University of Louisville Hospital, Louisville, KY; 6University of Louisville,, Louisville, KY
