Alterations in Cellular Immunity in Patients With Endometriosis: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

meta-analysis OA: closed public-domain-us
AI-generated summary by claude@2026-08, 2026-08-02

This meta-analysis of 24 studies found that IL-6 concentration in peritoneal fluid was significantly higher in patients with endometriosis compared to controls, indicating altered cellular immunity.

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Abstract

Determining the pathogenesis of endometriosis remains a major challenge in contemporary gynecology, and the investigation of alterations in cellular immunity may provide important insights into this issue. A comprehensive search of electronic databases (PubMed, The Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov, Scopus, Embase, and Google Scholar) identified 24 studies meeting the inclusion criteria for qualitative synthesis. The primary analysis compared the concentration of IL-4 in peripheral blood (MD = 1.32, 95% CI: -15.00 to 17.63, p = 0.87); the secondary compared the concentration of HLA-DR+-macrophages (MD = -2.62, 95% CI: -8.98 to 3.73, p = 0.42) and HLA-ABC+-macrophages (MD = -6.84, 95% CI: -23.94 to 10.26, p = 0.43) in peritoneal fluid; the third compared the IL-6 concentration in peritoneal fluid (MD = 338.00, 95% CI: 85.02 to 590.98, p = 0.009); the fourth compared the NK-cell level in peritoneal fluid (MD = 6.75, 95% CI: -12.42 to 25.91, p = 0.49); the fifth compared the level of NK-cells in ectopic and eutopic endometrium (MD = -9.12, 95% CI: -24.39 to 6.15, p = 0.24) between endometriosis and control groups. Overall, the included studies suggest that signaling pathways involving T lymphocytes, monocytes, macrophages, and natural killer cells are altered in patients with endometriosis.

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MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Immunity, Cellular Immunity, Cellular Immunity, Cellular Immunity, Cellular Immunity, Cellular Immunity, Cellular Killer Cells, Natural Killer Cells, Natural Killer Cells, Natural Killer Cells, Natural Killer Cells, Natural Killer Cells, Natural Killer Cells, Natural

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (57)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-08-04T06:16:37.499272+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-08-04T06:09:38.241991+00:00
pubmed
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