Dysmenorrhea and its severity are associated with increased uterine contractility and overexpression of oxytocin receptor (OTR) in women with symptomatic adenomyosis

Sun-Wei Guo, Sun‐Wei Guo, Guo SW, Mao X, Xiaoyan Mao, Qingliang Ma, Ma Q, Liu X, Xishi Liu
Fertility and sterility · 2012 · vol. 99(1) , pp. 231–240 · doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2012.08.038 · PMID:22999795 · W2094195931
article OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 77 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-06 ⓘ

This study investigated women with symptomatic adenomyosis and found a correlation between dysmenorrhea severity and elevated uterine contractility alongside increased oxytocin receptor expression.

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Abstract

ObjectiveTo evaluate uterine contractility, oxytocin receptor (OTR) expression in myometrial smooth muscle cells (MSMCs) derived from uterine tissues from women with and without adenomyosis correlate OTR expression with uterine contractility and dysmenorrhea severity, and see whether trichostatin A (TSA) and andrographolide inhibit OTR expression.DesignLaboratory study using human tissues.SettingAcademic hospital.Patient(s)Twenty patients (cases) with histologically confirmed adenomyosis and 10 (controls) with leiomyomas, cervical dysplasia, and cancer but no adenomyosis or endometriosis.Intervention(s)Dysmenorrhea severity was scored by Visual Analog Scale. Uterine tissue samples were collected during hysterectomy. Myometrial smooth muscle cells derived from tissue samples were cultured and OTR protein levels were measured. The effect of TSA (0.5 or 1 μM) and andrographolide (15 or 30 μM) on OTR expression was evaluated.Main outcome measure(s)Visual Analog Scale scores, and contractile amplitude and frequency. The OTR protein levels in MSMCs were quantified by Western blot analysis.Result(s)The contractile amplitude and OTR expression levels were significantly higher in cases than in controls. Dysmenorrhea Visual Analog Scale scores correlated positively with contractile amplitude and OTR expression level. Both TSA and andrographolide dose-dependently inhibit OTR expression in MSMC.Conclusion(s)Oxytocin receptor overexpression in MSMCs may be responsible for increased uterine contractility and adenomyosis-associated dysmenorrhea. Both histone deacetylase inhibitors and andrographolide are therapeutically promising.

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Condition tags

dysmenorrheaadenomyosis

MeSH descriptors

Adenomyosis Dysmenorrhea Myocytes, Smooth Muscle Myometrium Receptors, Oxytocin Severity of Illness Index Uterine Contraction Adenomyosis Adenomyosis Adenomyosis Adult Case-Control Studies Cells, Cultured Cross-Sectional Studies Diterpenes Diterpenes Dose-Response Relationship, Drug Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Female

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 (70)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

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