Peritoneal and serum interleukin-18 levels are not increased in women with minimum or mild endometriosis

C Glitz, Cristina Luce Glitz, Carlos Augusto Bastos de Souza, C A Souza, G P Rodini, Gustavo Peretti Rodini, V Genro, Vanessa Krebs Genro, J P Bilibio, João Paolo Bilibio, Mário Roberto Senger, M Senger, J S Cunha-Filho, João Sabino Cunha‐Filho
Brazilian journal of medical and biological research = Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologicas · 2009 · vol. 42(11) , pp. 1039–1043 · doi:10.1590/s0100-879x2009001100007 · PMID:19855902 · W2143936692
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 17 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This study found no difference in peritoneal or serum interleukin-18 levels between infertile women with minimal/mild endometriosis and fertile controls, but a positive correlation between these levels was observed in the endometriosis group.

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Abstract

Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is a cytokine that belongs to the IL-1 family. Endometriosis is strongly associated with sub-fertility, and affects about 15% of women of reproductive age. IL-18 may favor the progression of endometriosis. The objective of the present study was to determine the concentration of IL-18 in the serum and peritoneal fluid of infertile women with endometriosis. Forty infertile and 25 fertile women were screened in a teaching hospital. Thirty-four infertile patients with minimal or mild endometriosis and 22 fertile controls were enrolled in the study. The primary outcome was the estimate of IL-18 levels and the secondary outcome was the correlation between serum and peritoneal levels of IL-18. There were no differences between the two groups regarding age, body mass index and levels of peritoneal fluid IL-18 (mean +/- SD): 290.85 +/- 173.02 pg/mL for infertile women vs 374.21 +/- 330.15 pg/mL for controls; or serum IL-18: 391.07 +/- 119.71 pg/mL for infertile women vs 373.42 +/- 129.11 pg/mL for controls. However, a positive association was found between serum and peritoneal IL-18 levels in patients with endometriosis: r = 0.794, P = 0.0001. All measurements were carried out at the same time by the Human IL-18 Immuno Assay ELISA kit (MBL Co. Ltd., Japan). The present study did not find evidence supporting the hypothesis that IL-18 levels are associated with infertility in women with minimal and mild endometriosis, although a positive correlation was detected in these women between peritoneal and serum levels of IL-18.

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Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Ascitic Fluid Endometriosis Infertility, Female Interleukin-18 Adult Ascitic Fluid Case-Control Studies Cross-Sectional Studies Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Infertility, Female Infertility, Female Interleukin-18 Interleukin-18 Severity of Illness Index

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