Effects of silymarin, cabergoline and letrozole on rat model of endometriosis

Sheyda Jouhari, Afsaneh Mohammadzadeh, Haleh Soltanghoraee, Zohreh Mohammadi, Shaheen Khazali, Ebrahim Mirzadegan, Niknam Lakpour, Farnaz Fatemi, Simin Zafardoust, Arash Mohazzab, Mohammad Naderi, Mohammad Mehdi Naderi
Taiwanese journal of obstetrics & gynecology · 2018 · vol. 57(6) , pp. 830–835 · doi:10.1016/j.tjog.2018.10.011 · PMID:30545536 · W2903643077
article OA: diamond CC0 ⤵ 22 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Silymarin, letrozole, and cabergoline treatments reduced the size and histopathologic grade of induced endometrial lesions in a rat endometriosis model.

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

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Silymarin as an herbal drug has potent antioxidant effects that could make it a good choice for endometriosis therapy. The aim of the current study was to determine the effects of silymarin as an herbal drug on induced endometrial lesion in rat model of endometriosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 32 mature, female Sprague-Dawley rats were allocated into 4 experimental groups. The duration of study was about 6 months. Endometriosis implants were surgically prepared and autografted into 32 rats. Three weeks after endometriosis induction, animals were randomly allocated into four groups: Group 1 received cabergoline (CAB group); Group 2 received letrozole (LET group); Group 3 received silymarin (SIL group) and Group 4 received no medication (CONT group). Experimental groups were treated for 3 weeks and then were sacrificed for volume and histopathological evaluation of implants and biochemical assessment. Serum and peritoneal levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), total antioxidant activity (TAC) and tumor necrosis (TNF)-α were measured. RESULTS: Mean volume of the implants decreased significantly in silymarin (p < 0.001), letrozole (p < 0.001) and cabergoline (p < 0.001) groups compared to the control. Histopathologic score was significantly lower in silymarin (p: 0.039), letrozole (p: 0.017) and cabergoline (p < 0.001) groups compared to the control. Those receiving silymarin had significantly higher serum TAC compared to control after 21 days of therapy (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Silymarin, Letrozole, and Cabergoline administration resulted in decreased size and histopathologic grade of the induced endometrial lesions in a rat model. Silymarin appears to be a virtual novel therapeutic agent for treatment of endometriosis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Antioxidants Endometriosis Silymarin Animals Antioxidants Aromatase Inhibitors Aromatase Inhibitors Cabergoline Cabergoline Disease Models, Animal Dopamine Agonists Dopamine Agonists Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Letrozole Letrozole Random Allocation Rats Rats, Sprague-Dawley

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 (67)

Cited by (22)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-11T06:19:48.454388+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:19:25.021412+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK