Image analysis measurements of the microvascularisation in endometrium, superficial and deep endometriotic tissues

article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 8 in-corpus citations
AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-07-09

This study quantified microvascularization in endometrial and endometriotic tissues, finding differences between lesion types and significant changes in vessel number and area in response to progestin treatment.

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

AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-07, 2026-07-09 · read from full text

This study assessed microvascularisation in human endometrium and endometriotic tissues (superficial and deep lesions) using CD31 immunohistochemistry and computer image analysis to measure vessel number per mm² and vessel area in 66 women treated with progestin or not. In untreated women, vessel number per mm² was similar across endometrium and superficial/deep lesions (211, 216, 225), while vessel area differed (270, 141, 194 μm²). In progestin-treated women, vessel numbers were lower in superficial and deep endometriotic lesions than in endometrium (129, 149, 181), and vessel area was increased in superficial lesions compared with other sites (369, 474, 254 μm²), leading to conclusions that endometriotic lesions are heterogeneous and that progestin reduces vessel number with concomitant dilation, with more microvascular changes in endometrium and superficial lesions than deep lesions. This paper is centrally about endometriosis—specifically microvascularisation in endometrium and superficial versus deep endometriotic tissues under progestin treatment.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

UnlabelledThe aim of this study was to evaluate precisely the microvascularisation of endometrium, superficial and deep endometriotic lesions, in progestin-treated and non-treated patients suffering from endometriosis.MethodsA population of 66 women was constituted. Immunohistochemistry was carried out with a specific marker of the endothelial cells (CD31). The number of vessels and the vessel area were assessed by a computer image analysis system.ResultsThe number of vessels per mm2 were 211, 216, 225 and the vessel area was 270, 141 and 194 microm2, respectively in endometria, superficial and deep endometriotic lesions of untreated women. In endometria, superficial and deep endometriotic lesions of progestin-treated women the number of vessels were respectively 129, 149, and 181 per mm2 and the vessel area was 369, 474 and 254 microm2.ConclusionStatistically significant data indicate that endometriotic lesions are heterogeneous and suggest that progestin treatment induces a reduction in number and a concomitant dilation of microvessels with more microvascular changes in endometrium and superficial endometriotic lesions than in deep endometriotic lesions.
Full text 7,023 characters · extracted from oa-doi-fallback · 6 sections · click to expand

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate precisely the microvascularisation of endometrium, superficial and deep endometriotic lesions, in progestin-treated and non-treated patients suffering from endometriosis.

Methods

A population of 66 women was constituted. Immunohistochemistry was carried out with a specific marker of the endothelial cells (CD31). The number of vessels and the vessel area were assessed by a computer image analysis system.

Results

The number of vessels per mm2 were 211, 216, 225 and the vessel area was 270, 141 and 194 μm2, respectively in endometria, superficial and deep endometriotic lesions of untreated women. In endometria, superficial and deep endometriotic lesions of progestin-treated women the number of vessels were respectively 129, 149, and 181 per mm2 and the vessel area was 369, 474 and 254 μm2.

Conclusion

Statistically significant data indicate that endometriotic lesions are heterogeneous and suggest that progestin treatment induces a reduction in number and a concomitant dilation of microvessels with more microvascular changes in endometrium and superficial endometriotic lesions than in deep endometriotic lesions. Similar content being viewed by others

References

Groothuis PG, Nap AW, Winterhager E, Grummer R (2005) Vascular development in endometriosis. Angiogenesis 8:147–156 Gargett C, Weston G, Rogers PAW (2002) Mechanism and regulation of endometrial Angiogenesis. Reprod Medec Rew 10:45–61 Donnez J, Smoes P, Gillerot S, Casanas-Roux F, Nisolle M (1998) Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in endometriosis. Hum Reprod 13:1686–1690 Mclaren J (2000) Vascular endothelial growth factor and endometriotic angiogenesis. Hum Reprod Update 6:45–55 Zygmunt M, Herr F, Keller-Schoenwetter S et al (2002) Characterization of human chorionic gonadotropin as a novel angiogenic factor. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 87:5290–96 Hayrabedyan S, Kyurkchiev S, Kehayov I (2005) Endoglin (cd105) and S100A13 as markers of active angiogenesis in endometriosis. Reprod Biol 5:51–67 Girling JA, Rogers PAW (2005) Recent advances in endometrial angiogenesis research. Angiogenesis 8:89–99 Vercellini P, Fedele L, Pietropaolo G, Frontino G, Somigliana E, Crosignani PG (2003) Progestogens for endometriosis: forward to the past. Hum Reprod Update 4:387–396 Prentice A, Deary AJ, Bland E (2000) Progestagens and anti-progestagens for pain associated with endometriosis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev CD002122 Rodriguez-Manzaneque JC, Graubert M, Iruela-Arispe ML (2000) Endothelial cell dysfunction following prolonged activation of progesterone receptor. Hum Reprod 15(suppl 3):39–47 Jondet M, Dehennin L (2003) Impact of different progestins on endometrial different progestins on endometrial vascularisation of postmenopausal women. A retrospective image analysis morphometric study. Maturitas 46:165–171 Jondet M, Letellier B, Verdys MT (2005) Endometrial vascularization in levonorgestrel intrauterine devise users; computerized microvessel measurement study. Contraception 71:60–64 Nisolle M, Casana-Roux F, Anaf V, Mine J-M, Donnez J (1993) Morphometric study of the stromal vascularization in peritoneal endometriosis. Fertil Steril 59:681–684 Matsuzaki S, Canis M, Murakami T, Dechelotte P, Bruhat MA, Okomura K (2001) Immunohistochemical analysis of the role of angiogenic status in the vasculature of peritoneal endometriosis. Fertil Steril 76:712–716 Chapron C, Fauconnier A, Vieira M et al (2003) Anatomical distribution of deeply infiltrating endometriosis: surgical implications and proposition for a classification. Hum Reprod 18:157–161 Turner HE, Harris AL, Melmed S, Wass JA (2003) Angiogenesis in endocrine tumors. Endocr Rev 24:600–632 Angulo J, Serra J (2003) Automatic analysis of DNA microarray images using mathematical morphology. Bioinformatics 19:553–562 Koninck PR, Kennedy SH, Barlow DH (1998) Endometriotic disease: the role of peritoneal fluid. Hum Reprod Update 4:741–751 Gazvani R, Templeton A (2002) Peritoneal environment, cytokines and angiogenesis in the pathophysiology of endometriosis. Reproduction 123:217–226 Healy DL, Rogers PAW, Hii L, Wingfield M (1998) Angiogenesis: a new theory for endometriosis. Hum Reprod Update 4:736–740 Rogers PAW, Au CLA, Affandi B (1993) Endometrial microsvasculature density during the normal menstrual cycle and following exposure to long-term levonorgestrel. Hum Reprod 8:1396–1404 Bergqvist A, Ljungberg O, Myhre E (1984) Human endometrium and endometriotic tissue obtained simultaneously: a comparative histological study. Int J Gynecol Pathol 3:135–145 Chapron C, Boucher E, Fauconnier A, Vieira M, Dubuisson JB, Vacher-Lavenu MC (2002) Anatomopathological lesions of bladder endometriosis are heterogeneous. Fertil Steril 78:740–742 Bonte H, Chapron C, Vieira M et al (2002) Histologic appearance of endometriosis infiltrating uterosacral ligaments in women with painful symptoms. J Am Assoc Gynecol Laparosc 9:419–424 Heilier JF, Donnez O, Van Kerkhove V, Lison D, Donnez J (2006) Expression of aromatase (P450 aromatase/CYP19) in pritoneal and ovarian endometriotic tissues and deep endometriotic (adenomyotic) nodules of the rectovaginal septum. Fertil Steril 85:1516–1518 Uzan C, Cortez A, Dufournet C, Fauvet R, Siffroi JP, Darai E (2004) Eutopic endometrium and peritoneal, ovarian and bowel endometriotic tissues express a different profile of matrix metalloproteinases-2, -3 and -11, and of tissue inhibitor mettalloproteinases-1 and -2. Virchows Arch 445:603–609 Hull ML, Charnock-Jones DS, Chan CL et al (2003) Antiangiogenic agents are effective inhibitors of endometriosis. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 88:2889–2899 Nap AW, Griffioen AW, Dunselman GA et al (2004) Antiangiogenesis therapy for endometriosis. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 89:1089–1095 Brosens IA, Brosens JJ (2000) Redefining endometriosis: is deep endometriosis a progressive disease? Hum Reprod 15:1–3 Bulun SE, Cheng YH, Yin P et al (2006) Progesterone resistance in endomtriosis: link to failure to metabolize estradiol. Mol Cell Endocrinol 248:94–103 Anaf V, Simon P, El Nakadi I, Fayt I, Buxant F, Noel JC (2002) Hyperalgia, nerve infiltration and nerve growth factor expression in deep adenomyotic nodules, peritoneal and ovarian endometriosis. Hum Reprod 17:1895–1900 Chapron C, Fauconnier A, Dubuisson JB, Barakat H, Vieira M, Breart G (2003) Deep infiltrating endometriosis: relation between severity of dysmenorrhoea and extent of disease. Hum Reprod 18:760–766

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. L. Dehennin for assistance with statistics and manuscript processing. Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Rights and permissions About this article Cite this article Jondet, M., Vacher-Lavenu, M.C. & Chapron, C. Image analysis measurements of the microvascularisation in endometrium, superficial and deep endometriotic tissues. Angiogenesis 9, 177–182 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10456-006-9044-y Received: Accepted: Published: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10456-006-9044-y

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-doi-fallback

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometrium Neovascularization, Pathologic Adult Endometriosis Endometrium Female Humans Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted Microcirculation Microcirculation Neovascularization, Pathologic

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 (32)

Cited by (8)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-08-23T09:30:01.253652+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:15:06.633332+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-08-23T06:29:45.520198+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK