Disrupted iron metabolism in peritoneal fluid may induce oxidative stress in the peritoneal cavity of women with endometriosis

article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 27 in-corpus citations
AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08

Peritoneal fluid from women with endometriosis showed higher hemoglobin, iron, and oxidative status, with lower antioxidant status, indicating disrupted iron metabolism and induced oxidative stress.

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

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Data on the possible role of peritoneal fluid free radical-mediated oxidative damage in the pathogenesis of endometriosis still remains inconsistent. The aim of the study was to determine iron metabolism markers and their influence on oxidative stress arameters in the peritoneal fluid of women with endometriosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 110 women with endometriosis and 119 patients with benign ovarian cysts were included in the study. All visible peritoneal fluid was aspirated during laparoscopy from the anterior and posterior cul-de-sacs. under direct vision to avoid blood contamination. Haemoglobin, iron, total oxidative status, and total antioxidant status were measured using standard colourimetric kits. RESULTS: Haemoglobin, iron levels, as well as total oxidative status values were significantly higher, whereas total antioxidant status values were significantly lower in the peritoneal fluid of patients with endometriosis, in comparison to the reference groups. No differences were observed in peritoneal fluid concentrations of all parameters measured in relation to the phase of the menstrual cycle. CONCLUSIONS: Peritoneal fluid of women with endometriosis is characterized by disrupted iron metabolism. This is most likely related to an increased number of erythrocytes in the peritoneal cavity of endometriotic women, which leads to a higher concentration of haemoglobin in this environment. Impaired iron homeostasis may have a significant influence on the pathophysiology of peritoneal endometriosis by the direct impact of haemoglobin derivatives and/or formation of the pro-inflammatory and pro-oxidative environment. Peritoneal cavity oxidative stress occurs predominantly in women in advanced stages of the disease.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Ascitic Fluid Endometriosis Iron Oxidative Stress Adolescent Adult Ascitic Fluid Ascitic Fluid Biomarkers Biomarkers Endometriosis Female Hemoglobins Hemoglobins Humans Iron Laparoscopy Middle Aged Ovarian Cysts Ovarian Cysts

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 (27)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:19:25.021412+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK