Zhihong Lin

Loss of progesterone signaling in the endometrium may be a causal factor in the development of endometriosis, and progesterone resistance is commonly observed in women with this disease. In endometriotic stromal cells, the levels of progest…

CONTEXT: Estradiol and its nuclear receptors, estrogen receptor (ER) alpha and ERbeta, play critical roles in endometrium and endometriosis. Levels of ERbeta, due to pathological hypomethylation of its promoter, are significantly higher in …

Endometriosis is a common and chronic disease characterized by persistent pelvic pain and infertility. Estradiol is essential for growth and inflammation in endometriotic tissue. The complete cascade of steroidogenic proteins/enzymes includ…

Steroid receptors in the stromal cells of endometrium and its disease counterpart tissue endometriosis play critical physiologic roles. We found that mRNA and protein levels of estrogen receptor 2 (ESR2) were strikingly higher, whereas leve…

CONTEXT: Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent disease. Steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1), a transcriptional factor essential for activation of multiple steroidogenic genes for estrogen biosynthesis, is undetectable in normal endometrial strom…

Local estrogen biosynthesis is a major factor in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. Aberrant expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) and aromatase in endometriotic tissue leads to an up-regulation of estrogen production.…

Endometrial tissue from uterine disease-free women does not exhibit aromatase activity. In contrast, aromatase enzyme activity and mRNA levels are readily detectable in endometriosis. PGE2 stimulates both aromatase expression and activity i…

A single gene encodes the key enzyme for estrogen biosynthesis termed aromatase, inhibition of which effectively eliminates estrogen production. Aromatase inhibitors successfully treat breast cancer and endometriosis, whereas their roles in…