{"paper_id":"604d4761-2609-4012-98f8-29144932f46d","body_text":"Abstract\nObjective\nTo observe the levels of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in blood, peritoneal fluid, ectopic endometrial tissue, and ectopic endometrial stromal cells of patients with endometriosis, and to compare expression of IL-6, LIF and VEGF expression between endometriotic and non-endometriotic patients underwent laparoscopic surgery.\nMethods\nThirty-one patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis in our hospital from January 2018 to January 2020 were included in the observation group, and 32 patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery for uterine fibroids, ovarian serous cystadenoma, and ovarian teratomas, were included in the control group. The levels of LIF, IL-6 and VEGF in the blood and peritoneal fluid of the two groups of patients were detected. The levels of LIF, IL-6 and VEGF in ectopic endometrial tissue and self-paired eutopic endometrial tissue, ectopic endometrial stromal cells and self-paired eutopic endometrial stromal cells of patients in the observation group were detected. After treating the primary cultured ectopic endometrial stromal cells with LIF and IL-6 alone or in combination, the changes of VEGF mRNA of ectopic endometrial stromal cells and the VEGF levels in the supernatant were observed.\nResults\nThe levels of LIF, IL-6 and VEGF in the blood and peritoneal fluid of the observation group were all higher than those of the control group (P < 0.05), and the levels of LIF, IL-6 and VEGF in the peritoneal fluid of the observation group were significantly higher than those in the blood (P < 0.05). In the observation group, the expression levels of LIF-mRNA and IL-6 mRNA in the ectopic endometrial tissue were higher than those in the self-paired eutopic endometrial tissues (P < 0.05), while the expression level of VEGF mRNA in the ectopic endometrial tissues was lower than that in the self-paired eutopic endometrial tissues (P < 0.05). Besides, the mRNA expression levels of LIF, IL-6 and VEGF in ectopic endometrial stromal cells of the observation group were all higher than those in the self-paired eutopic endometrial stromal cells (P < 0.05). After stimulating ectopic endometrial stromal cells with LIF, IL-6 and LIF + IL-6, respectively, the VEGF levels in the supernatant were all significantly higher than that in the blank control group (P < 0.05).\nConclusion\nThe LIF, IL-6 and VEGF levels in blood and peritoneal fluid were increased in patients with endometriosis, and increased LIF and IL-6 in ectopic endometriosis stromal cells can play a synergistic role in increasing the VEGF levels, which may be involved in the occurrence and development of endometriosis.\nSimilar content being viewed by others\nData availability\nThe datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.\nReferences\nPeiris AN, Chaljub E, Medlock D (2018) Endometriosis [J]. JAMA 320(24):2608\nFalcone T, Flyckt R (2018) Clinical management of endometriosis [J]. 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Nat Immunol 16(5):448–457\nFunding\nNo funding was received for this study.\nAuthor information\nAuthors and Affiliations\nContributions\nCL and HY contributed to the conception and design of the study; HLZ, YJL, YYZ and HYL performed the experiments. CL and FZF collected and analyzed data; CL and HY wrote the manuscript; all authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.\nCorresponding author\nEthics declarations\nConflict of interest\nThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.\nEthics approval and consent to participate\nThe study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Linyi Central Hospital (No.LY19-208). Written informed consent was obtained from all the study subjects before enrollment.\nAdditional information\nPublisher's Note\nSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.\nRights and permissions\nAbout this article\nCite this article\nLi, C., Zhao, HL., Li, YJ. et al. The expression and significance of leukemia inhibitory factor, interleukin-6 and vascular endothelial growth factor in Chinese patients with endometriosis. Arch Gynecol Obstet 304, 163–170 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-021-05980-5\nReceived:\nAccepted:\nPublished:\nVersion of record:\nIssue date:\nDOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-021-05980-5","source_license":"CC0","license_restricted":false}