Expression of inflammatory cytokines in serum and peritoneal fluid from patients with different stages of endometriosis

Yan-Yan Fan, Yanyan Fan, Hongyu Chen, Hong-Yu Chen, Wei Chen, Yinan Liu, Yi-Nan Liu, Yan Fu, Lina Wang, Li-Na Wang
Gynecological endocrinology : the official journal of the International Society of Gynecological Endocrinology · 2018 · vol. 34(6) , pp. 507–512 · doi:10.1080/09513590.2017.1409717 · PMID:29308924 · W2783232776
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 67 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Endometriosis patients show significantly different serum levels of IL-37, IL-17A, IL-10, and IL-2 compared to controls, with IL-37 potentially serving as a diagnostic marker.

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

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the level of inflammatory cytokines in endometriosis patients, and explore the relationship between IL-37 concentration and endometriosis stages. METHODS: Inflammatory cytokine concentrations from 27 patients with different stages of endometriosis and 52 controls without endometriosis were examined by ELISA. Then, the specificity and sensitivity of cytokines for distinguishing from controls and the different stages of endometriosis were analyzed using the ROC curve. RESULTS: The difference in serum concentrations of IL-37, IL-17A, IL-10, and IL-2 between the endometriosis and control groups was statistically significant (p < .01). Compared with controls, significantly higher levels of serum IL-37 and IL-10, and significantly lower levels of serum IL-17A and IL-2 were detected in patients with endometriosis (p < .01). Furthermore, IL-2 concentration was significantly higher in peritoneal fluid (PF) in the endometriosis group (p = .0034), IL-10 concentrations in PF were significantly lower in the early-stages of endometriosis than in the more advanced groups (p = .0439), and IL-4 concentration in PF was significantly higher in more advanced endometriosis (p = .0228). The sensitivity and specificity of serum IL-37 for distinguishing endometriosis were 81.48% and 83.33%, respectively, and the cutoff concentration was 69.84 pg/ml. For IL-17A, the sensitivity and specificity were 96.30% and 100%, respectively, and the cutoff concentration was 57.54 pg/ml. For IL-10, the sensitivity and specificity was 92.59% and 100%, respectively, and the cutoff concentration was 3.301 pg/ml. For IL-2, the sensitivity and specificity were 74.07% and 93.75%, respectively, and the cutoff concentration was 1.813 pg/ml. For PF IL-2, the sensitivity and specificity were 29.73% and 100%, respectively, and the cutoff concentration was 1.06 pg/ml. CONCLUSIONS: IL-37, IL-17A, IL-10, and IL-2 may play a significant role in immune response in endometriosis. IL-37 levels may be used as a diagnostic marker for endometriosis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Ascitic Fluid Cytokines Endometriosis Inflammation Adult Ascitic Fluid Biomarkers Biomarkers Biomarkers Cytokines Cytokines Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Inflammation Inflammation Sensitivity and Specificity

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 (27)

Cited by (50)

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: 2026-05-13T22:20:01.354358+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK