Expression of programmed death-1 (PD-1) and its ligand PD-L1 is upregulated in endometriosis and promoted by 17beta-estradiol

Lukanxuan Wu, Chunzi Lv, Yi-Feng Su, Yifeng Su, Chunyan Li, Hui Zhang, Xinbo Zhao, Mingjiang Li
Gynecological endocrinology : the official journal of the International Society of Gynecological Endocrinology · 2018 · vol. 35(3) , pp. 251–256 · doi:10.1080/09513590.2018.1519787 · PMID:30325236 · W2895807684
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 36 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Programmed death-1 (PD-1) and its ligand PD-L1 are upregulated in endometriosis, with 17beta-estradiol promoting PD-L1 expression in endometrial cells.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

The programmed death-1 (PD-1)/PD-L1 pathway plays important roles in immune responses and peripheral tolerance. Under pathological conditions, this pathway can suppress protective T cell responses and induce immune system disorders. Endometriosis (EM) is an estrogen-dependent, immune-associated disease. The expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 has been studied in a variety of cancers and autoimmune diseases. Few studies, however, have attempted to explore their expression and the possibility that they are regulated by estrogen in EM. Eutopic and ectopic endometria and blood samples were collected from 15 women with EM and 15 women without EM. PD-1/PD-L1 expression in endometrial tissues was detected using immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis. Their expression in blood was detected using flow cytometry. In addition, their expression was evaluated in endometrial cells after estrogen and cytokine treatment. We observed PD-1/PD-L1 expression in both eutopic and ectopic endometria, with elevated expression in EM. Their expression was also higher in CD4+/CD8+ T cells in blood from EM patients. In addition, treatment with 17β-estradiol upregulated PD-L1 expression in eutopic epithelial cells in EM. These data suggest that the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway may be involved in EM immune dysfunction and be regulated by estrogen.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

B7-H1 Antigen Endometriosis Endometrium Estradiol Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor Up-Regulation Adult B7-H1 Antigen CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes Endometriosis Endometrium Endometrium Estradiol Female Gene Expression Regulation Gene Expression Regulation Humans Middle Aged Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor

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 (28)

Cited by (36)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:19:31.300640+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-06-02T02:00:03.124865+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK