Pathogenesis of Endometriosis: Role of Platelets in Endometriosis

Endometriosis is often likened to cancer, since endometriotic lesions also exhibit proliferation, apoptosis resistance, invasion, inflammation, angiogenesis, epigenetic aberration, and even cancer-driver mutations. Unlike cancer, however, endometriotic lesions simply do not grow unbridled. In fact, one defining hallmark of endometriotic lesions that sets it apart from cancer cells is cyclic bleeding as in eutopic endometrium. Yet bleeding is a quintessential hallmark of vascular injury and thus tissue injury. Once there is a tissue injury, the evolutionarily conserved tissue repair program would kick in in all organisms. Consequently, endometriotic lesions resemble wounds. Following each bleeding episode, endometriotic lesions go through four, somewhat overlapping, phases of tissue repair: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. Among these four phases, platelets are the first responder that participates in tissue repair. It turns out that this repeated tissue injury and repair would elicit several molecular events crucial for lesional progression, eventually leading to lesional fibrosis. Platelets actively participate into these events, promoting the lesional progression and fibrogenesis. In this chapter, the role of platelets in the progression of endometriosis is reviewed, along with therapeutic implication. Access this chapter Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout Purchases are for personal use only Similar content being viewed by others

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Author information Authors and Affiliations Editor information Editors and Affiliations Rights and permissions Copyright information © 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG About this chapter Cite this chapter Guo, SW. (2022). Pathogenesis of Endometriosis: Role of Platelets in Endometriosis. In: Oral, E. (eds) Endometriosis and Adenomyosis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97236-3_4 Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97236-3_4 Published: Publisher Name: Springer, Cham Print ISBN: 978-3-030-97235-6 Online ISBN: 978-3-030-97236-3 eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)