The role of the sympathetic and sensory nervous system in peritoneal endometriotic lesions

Question: The nervous system (NS) has an influence on the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory autoimmune diseases (AID). The sympathetic NS exerts an anti-inflammatory effect while the sensory NS promotes inflammatory changes, through a stimulation of immune cells and proinflammatory cytokines. A reduced density of sympathetic nerve fibers (syNF) in inflammatory tissue and an increased density of sensory (se) NF could be seen. Similar to AID, endometriosis (EM) is a chronic inflammatory disease, associated with chronic pelvic pain. In human peritoneal endometriotic lesions (pEL), seNF and syNF are present.