Stem Cell as the Novel Pathogenesis of Endometriosis

Eing‐Mei Tsai
In: Endometriosis - Basic Concepts and Current Research Trends · 2012 · doi:10.5772/29695 · W1599507595
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This study isolated and characterized endometrial mesenchymal stem cells from eutopic and ectopic tissue, finding genetic differences and invasive properties consistent with endometriosis being a stem cell disease.

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This review chapter explores the hypothesis that stem cells play a central role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. It discusses how bone marrow-derived and endometrial stem cells may contribute to lesion formation, persistence, and recurrence through mechanisms such as angiogenesis and immune modulation. The text highlights the potential of these cellular pathways to explain why endometriosis is a chronic condition with high relapse rates after surgical intervention. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — specifically focusing on the theoretical framework of stem cell involvement in disease development.

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Abstract

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disease. It is unique to have benign histology but with malignant characteristics. Easy recurrence, multiple organ involvement and malignant transformation potential make endometriosis a complex disease. Multi-factors contribute to the pathophysiology. Recently, endometriosis has been regarded as a stem cell disease (Sasson & Taylor, 2008). Some studies have provided evidence of the possible existence of stem cells in endometrial tissue (Gargett et al., 2004, 2007). We successfully isolated eutopic and ectopic endometrial mesenchymal stem cells (EN-MSCs) derived from one donor to examine the genetic difference analysis that provided a powerful tool for investigating the disease origin (Kao et al., 2011). Our results are consistent with the concept that endometriosis is a stem cell disease. We identified and characterized the MSCs from ectopic and eutopic endometrium by in vitro cell characteristics, including serpiginous morphology, surface biomarkers, a lack of gap junctional intercellular communication and the ability of differentiation and transdifferentiation into adipocytes, osteocytes, chondrocytes, neural cell and cardiomyocytes. In an in vivo animal study, we found the ability of invasion in eutopic and ectopic MSC.
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Open access Submitted: 10 March 2011 Published: 09 May 2012 DOI: 10.5772/29695 From the Edited Volume Edited by Koel Chaudhury and Baidyanath Chakravarty Submitted: 10 March 2011 Published: 09 May 2012 © 2012 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Discover 2026 Nobel Laureate Francis Halzen’s chapter on IntechOpen >

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endometriosis

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