Investigating the impact of local inflammation on granulosa cells and follicular development in women with ovarian endometriosis

Ying Li, Li Y, Ruiqi Li, Li R, Ouyang N, Nengyong Ouyang, Dai K, Kailing Dai, Ping Yuan, Lingyan Zheng, Zheng L, Wang W, Wenjun Wang
Fertility and sterility · 2019 · vol. 112(5) , pp. 882–891.e1 · doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2019.07.007 · PMID:31551156 · W2974547785
Other OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 24 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This study investigated the effects of local inflammation associated with ovarian endometriosis on granulosa cells and the development of ovarian follicles in women.

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

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the possible impact of local inflammation on granulosa cells (GCs) and follicular development in endometriosis patients. DESIGN: Prospective study with related paired design. SETTING: Reproductive medicine center. PATIENT(S): A total of 80 endometriosis patients and 104 controls, with cultured GCs collected from control participants younger than 35 years. INTERVENTION(S): Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) inhibitor. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Intrafollicular concentrations of cytokines measured with ELISA, NF-κB binding levels with electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), and telomerase activity (TA) with quantitative-telomeric repeat amplification protocol (Q-TRAP) assay, and protein and mRNA expression with Western blot and polymerase chain reaction analyses, respectively. RESULT(S): Patients with endometriosis exhibited a statistically significantly lower antral follicle count (11.48 ± 8.11 vs. 15.68 ± 8.56), lower number of retrieved oocytes (8.28 ± 6.69 vs. 10.87 ± 6.26), and lower number of mature oocytes (6.67 ± 6.09 vs. 8.53 ± 5.69). The GCs from endometriosis patients showed higher NF-κB binding activity and increased expression of inhibitor of NF-κB kinase subunit β (IKKβ, 2.743-fold) and NF-κB inhibitor α (IκBα, 5.017-fold). Their NF-κB p65 expression was negatively associated with mature oocytes (bNF-κB' = -0.304, R2 = 0.195, R = 0.442) but positively associated with intrafollicular TNF-α (r = 0.37); TA showed a negative relationship with NF-κB binding levels (r = -0.667). Tumor necrosis factor-α induced expression of IκBα (5.408-fold) and NF-κB p65 (1.400-fold) but lowered human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and TA levels (0.0009 vs. 0.5619) in cultured GCs. However, inhibiting NF-κB obviously increased hTERT expression (1.988-fold). CONCLUSION(S): Endometriosis showed activated NF-κB pathways in GCs, which might negatively affect TA and oocyte quality. Intrafollicular TNF-α might down-regulate TA and hTERT via NF-κB pathway, but further studies are required.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Granulosa Cells Inflammation Mediators Ovarian Follicle Ovarian Follicle Adult Adult Cells, Cultured Cells, Cultured Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Female Granulosa Cells Granulosa Cells Humans Humans Inflammation Inflammation

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

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. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (40)

Cited by (26)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-16T06:09:50.462052+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:25:31.705136+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-09-17T06:32:46.214484+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK