Aromatase as a target for treating endometriosis

Taisuke Mori, Fumitake Ito, Akemi Koshiba, Hisashi Kataoka, Yukiko Tanaka, Hiroyuki Okimura, Khaleque Newaz Khan, Khaleque N Khan, Jo Kitawaki
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research · 2018 · vol. 44(9) , pp. 1673–1681 · doi:10.1111/jog.13743 · PMID:30043503 · W2883691767
review OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 25 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This review outlines the role of aromatase in estrogen production in endometriosis and proposes novel therapeutic strategies targeting this enzyme.

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

Abstract

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disease that causes various clinical symptoms, such as chronic pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea and infertility, seriously affecting women's health and their quality of life. The symptoms and endometriotic lesions are relieved, in many cases, after menopause, when estrogen levels are lowered. Therefore, endometriosis is considered to be estrogen-dependent. Aromatase, the enzyme responsible for the last step of estrogen biosynthesis converting testosterone and androgen to estrogen, was previously reported to be more abundant in endometriotic tissues than in the normal endometrium, leading to an increased local estrogen concentration. Therefore, aromatase is considered a key therapeutic target for regulating local estrogen biosynthesis in endometriosis. A more complete understanding of the mechanisms that modulate aromatase and its activity is required to develop novel estrogen-targeted therapies for endometriosis. In this review article, we outline the current understanding of the pathological processes involved in estrogen production in endometriosis and propose novel strategies to treat this disorder.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_paindysmenorrheainfertility

MeSH descriptors

Aromatase Endometriosis Endometriosis Estrogens Aromatase Endometriosis Endometriosis Estrogens Female Humans

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 (72)

Cited by (26)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-22T06:15:23.361955+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:19:37.156494+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK