The acute-phase response in endometriosis of women

G A Dunselman, G.A.J. Dunselman, P X Bouckaert, P. X. J. M. Bouckaert, J L Evers, J.L.H. Evers
Journal of reproduction and fertility · 1988 · vol. 83(2) , pp. 803–808 · doi:10.1530/jrf.0.0830803 · PMID:3137342 · W2083585244
article OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 17 in-corpus citations
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Endometriosis patients showed no difference in peritoneal fluid volume but had significantly higher peritoneal fluid:serum protein ratios than controls, suggesting exudation governed by molecular weight.

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

Abstract

Peritoneal fluid volume was determined and concentrations of C-reactive protein, alpha 1-antitrypsin, acid-alpha 1-glycoprotein, alpha 2-macroglobulin, haptoglobin, complement factors C3 and C4, IgG, IgA and IgM were measured in the supernatant of the peritoneal fluid and in serum by means of a radial-immunodiffusion technique in 25 patients with and in 45 patients without endometriosis. Peritoneal fluid volume was not different between the two groups. The peritoneal fluid:serum ratios for the proteins determined showed a significant inverse correlation with their molecular weight in both groups, indicating that their presence in peritoneal fluid is governed by exudation according to their molecular weight, rather than by active production in, or selective release into, the peritoneal cavity. In control patients only, the ratios of most of the individual proteins studied were significantly higher in the luteal than in the follicular phase. We suggest that the high values of peritoneal fluid:serum ratios in endometriotic tissue and peritoneal macrophages. In the luteal phase, the cycle-dependent increase of protein exudation obscures this additional contribution. We conclude that endometriosis does not cause marked intra-abdominal inflammatory changes. If the presence of endometriosis lowers fecundity, the mechanism probably does not involve acute-phase protein synthesis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Acute-Phase Reaction Endometriosis Inflammation Acute-Phase Reaction Acute-Phase Reaction Adult Ascitic Fluid Ascitic Fluid Blood Proteins Blood Proteins Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Follicular Phase Humans Inflammation Luteal Phase Molecular Weight Proteins Proteins

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 (20)

Cited by (17)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:09:20.810540+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK