Serum cytokine and growth factor levels in patients with endometriosis

Aycuruk Kubatova, Ahmet Erdem, Mehmet Erdem, Mehmet FiratMutlu, Ümit Korucuoğlu
In: Central European Journal of Immunology · 2013 · vol. 38(4) , pp. 500–504 · doi:10.5114/ceji.2013.39768 · W2312466229
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 7 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This study found elevated serum CA 125, TGF-β1, and IL-6 levels in patients with endometriomas compared to controls and milder endometriosis, with TGF-β1 correlating with disease stage.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This prospective study measured preoperative serum CA 125, TGF-β1, IL-6, and IL-12 in 73 women undergoing laparoscopy for suspected endometriosis/endometrioma, compared with 12 healthy laparoscopic controls. Among women with ovarian endometrioma versus mild to moderate peritoneal endometriosis, CA 125 and TGF-β1 were higher, and IL-6 was also higher in the endometrioma group, while IL-12 did not differ between groups. Only TGF-β1 correlated with endometriosis stage, and none of the markers correlated with CA 125 or with reported clinical findings; the authors also note that diagnostic value was lacking for early stage endometriosis. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it evaluates whether serum cytokines/growth factors (notably TGF-β1 and IL-6) can serve as non-invasive markers for diagnosing and staging endometriosis, especially endometrioma.

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Abstract

The aim of this prospective study is to define markers that can be used in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with endometriosis by determining serum CA 125, transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and IL-12 levels. The study group consisted of 14 patients diagnosed to have mild to moderate peritoneal endometriosis, 47 patients with ovarian endometrioma during laparoscopy and 12 healthy patients as a control group. Serum CA 125, TGF-β1, IL-6, and IL-12 levels were evaluated using ELISA kits. Serum CA 125 levels were significantly higher in the endometrioma group when compared to the control group (p < 0.001) and mild to moderate peritoneal endometriosis group (p < 0.001). Mean serum TGF-β1 levels were significantly higher in the endometrioma group when compared to the mild to moderate peritoneal endometriosis group (p < 0.001). In addition, serum TGF-β1 levels were found to be significantly different with regard to the stage of the endometriosis. Serum IL-6 levels were significantly higher in the endometrioma group compared to the endometriosis group (p = 0.024) and control group (p = 0.05). Mean serum IL-12 levels were lower in patients with endometriosis. In conclusion; TGF-β1 and IL-6 measurements might be a promising alternative in adjunct to CA 125 for the non-invasive diagnosis of endometrioma. However CA 125, TGF-β1, IL-6 and IL-12 seem not to have the diagnostic value in the diagnosis of early stage endometriosis. Of all the serum markers studied, only TGF-β1 was found to be correlated with the stage of endometriosis.

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endometriosisendometrioma

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