Regulation of Interleukin-8 Expression in Human Endometrial Endothelial Cells: A Potential Mechanism for the Pathogenesis of Endometriosis

Janelle Luk, Yasemin Seval, Umit A Kayisli, Murat Ulukus, Murat Ulukuş, Cagnur E Ulukus, Çağnur Ulukuş, Aydin Arici, Aydın Arıcı
The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2005 · vol. 90(3) , pp. 1805–1811 · doi:10.1210/jc.2004-1813 · PMID:15613411 · W2039733169
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 29 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Endometriotic endothelial cells exhibited higher IL-8 expression and sex steroid stimulation of IL-8, unlike endothelial cells from women without endometriosis.

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

Abstract

The elevation of the proinflammatory chemoattractant cytokine levels in ectopic and eutopic endometrium of endometriosis implies an inflammatory basis for this disease. The relationship between endothelial cells and leukocytes is likely to be important in the regulation of inflammatory mediators of endometriosis. The aim of this study was to describe the temporal and spatial expression of IL-8 in human endometrial endothelial cells (HEEC) in vivo and to compare the in vitro regulation of IL-8 expression by sex steroids in HEEC from women with or without endometriosis. Eutopic endometrial tissues and endometriosis implants were grouped according to menstrual cycle phase and examined by immunohistochemistry for IL-8 expression. Endothelial cells of endometriotic implants expressed higher IL-8 immunoreactivity compared with endothelial cells of eutopic endometrium from women with or without endometriosis (P < 0.02). For in vitro studies, HEEC were isolated from women with or without endometriosis and grown to preconfluence. The purity of cultured HEEC (90-95%) was confirmed by immunocytochemistry using endothelium-specific markers, CD31 and CD146. The effects of estradiol (5 x 10(-8) m), progesterone (10(-7) m), or both on IL-8 mRNA and protein levels were analyzed by RT-PCR and ELISA, respectively. Sex steroids reduced the expression of IL-8 mRNA and protein in HEEC from women without endometriosis. In contrast, both estradiol and progesterone stimulated IL-8 mRNA and protein expression in HEEC from women with endometriosis. We postulate that the stimulation of chemokine expression by sex steroids in HEEC of women with endometriosis may play a role in the inflammatory aspect of this disease.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometrium Endothelial Cells Interleukin-8 Cells, Cultured Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometrium Endothelial Cells Endothelial Cells Estradiol Estradiol Female Gene Expression Gene Expression Gene Expression Humans Immunohistochemistry Interleukin-8

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 (27)

Cited by (29)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-11T06:19:48.454388+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:12:26.305326+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-06-02T02:00:03.124865+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK