Supervisors info:
Δρακάκης Πέτρος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Σταύρου Σοφοκλής, Ακαδημαϊκός Υπότροφος, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Μαυρογιάννη Δέσποινα, ΕΔΙΠ, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Endometriosis is a benign disease, that is chronic, estrogen-dependent, and
affects around 10-15% of females of reproductive age. It is characterized by the
presence of endometriotic tissue outside its normal origin. There are three types of
this disease, depending on its biological behavior: peritoneal, ovarian, and deeply
infiltrating. This disease, even though its presence is known for many years, is not
fully investigated in terms of pathogenesis. The most accepted theory so far is that
of retrograde menstruation, proposed by Sampson in 1927. There are indications
that one of the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of endometriosis is the
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition, EMT, but the inconclusive data and the absence
of known regulation factors led to this study. Thus, the purpose of this study is the
investigation of the ZEB1 gene expression, a transcription factor that is crucial in EMT,
regarding Endometriosis. More specifically, we investigated the ZEB1 gene
expression in eutopic and ectopic endometriotic tissue of 20 women with
endometriotic cysts, and the expression in eutopic tissue of 5 women with no
endometriosis. We found that there was no significant importance in the ZEB1 gene
expression between eutopic and ectopic tissue in women with endometriosis.
Despite that, we noticed a tendency towards higher levels of ZEB1 expression in
ectopic endometriotic tissues in contrast to eutopic ones in women with
endometriotic cysts. More specifically, this was the case in 9 out of the 20 women.
This fact poses the need to study this gene expression in a larger population of
women with endometriosis. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning, that the ZEB1
expression was higher in the eutopic endometrium of women with no endometriosis
compared with eutopic and ectopic tissue of women suffering from the disease. This
data is perhaps associated with the involvement of EMT in the regeneration process
of the endometrium and the phases of menstruation, creating the need for a study
of eutopic endometrium of women with or without endometriosis, based on the
phase of the endometrium, in order to understand how the EMT affects the eutopic
endometrium. In addition, we noticed a non-significant important correlation of
the ZEB1 expression to the size of endometriotic cysts. That suggests, probably, that
in smaller-sized and in younger-aged cysts, the EMT phenomenon is more intense.
To conclude, it seems that EMT is to some extend, related to the pathogenesis and
progression of endometriosis, thus creating the need for more studies in order to
discover more specific factors and signaling pathways activated and markers that
could be used potentially, for the diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis.
Keywords:
ZEB1, Mir-200b, Endometriosis, Eutopic endometrium, Ectopic endometrium, Endometriotic cysts, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), Invasivenss, Endometrial regeneration, Female infertility
