Apoptosis in endometrial glandular and stromal cells in women with and without endometriosis

W P Dmowski, Dmowski WP, W. Paul Dmowski, J. Ding, Ding J, Shen J, J Shen, N Rana, Rana N, Nasir Rana, B B Fernandez, Fernandez BB, Balbino B. Fernandez, Braun DP, D P Braun
Human Reproduction · 2001 · vol. 16(9) , pp. 1802–1808 · doi:10.1093/humrep/16.9.1802 · PMID:11527879 · W2155854444
article OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 165 in-corpus citations
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Endometrial glandular cells from women with endometriosis exhibit decreased spontaneous apoptosis, particularly during certain menstrual cycle phases, compared to controls.

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

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The aetiology of endometriosis is unknown. Ectopic dissemination of the endometrial cells gives origin to endometriotic lesions, but occurs in women with and without endometriosis. It has been suggested that increased ectopic cell survival facilitates their implantation. The objectives of this study were to evaluate endometrial apoptosis in women with endometriosis according to: (i) cyclic changes, (ii) glandular and stromal contribution, and (iii) stage of the disease. METHODS: The subjects were women undergoing diagnostic laparoscopy and endometrial biopsies for suspected endometriosis. Spontaneous apoptosis was evaluated using TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end-labelling (TUNEL) assay. Apoptotic cells per 10 mm(2) (apoptotic index) in an area of 10-50 mm(2) in 5 microm endometrial tissue sections were counted and location of these cells was recorded. RESULTS: The apoptotic index in glandular epithelium was lower in endometriosis than controls (26.0 +/- 5.5 versus 51.2 +/- 9.7, P = 0.03) but not in the stroma (36.3 +/- 6.4 versus 48.4 +/- 11.3, NS). In controls, apoptosis was highest during the late secretory/menstrual and early proliferative phases and cyclic variability was apparent. In endometriosis, this cyclic variability was lost. There was a trend toward decreased apoptosis with increasing stage of the disease, but the differences lacked statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Spontaneous apoptosis is decreased in the endometrial glands in women with endometriosis, especially during late secretory/menstrual and early proliferative phases of the cycle. This may indicate increased viability of endometrial cells shed during menses, facilitating their ectopic survival and implantation.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Apoptosis Endometriosis Endometrium Stromal Cells Adult Disease Progression Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometrium Endometrium Female Humans In Situ Nick-End Labeling Menstrual Cycle Menstrual Cycle Reference Values Stromal Cells

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 (41)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-05T06:18:27.067365+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:13:19.284922+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK