Thalidomide Reduces Cell Proliferation in Endometriosis Experimentally Induced in Rats

Luana Grupioni Lourenço Antônio, Julio Cesar Rosa-E-Silva, Júlio César Rosa e Silva, Deborah Juliani Machado, Andrezza Telles Westin, Sérgio Britto Garcia, Sergio Britto Garcia, Francisco José Cândido dos Reis, Francisco José Candido-Dos-Reis, Omero Benedicto Poli-Neto, Omero Benedicto Poli‐Neto, Antonio Alberto Nogueira, Antônio Alberto Nogueira
Revista brasileira de ginecologia e obstetricia : revista da Federacao Brasileira das Sociedades de Ginecologia e Obstetricia · 2019 · vol. 41(11) , pp. 668–672 · doi:10.1055/s-0039-3399551 · PMID:31745960 · W2989592135
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Thalidomide significantly reduced endometriotic lesion area and cell proliferation index in a rat model at both 1 mg/kg/day and 10 mg/kg/day doses.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This study evaluated whether thalidomide given intraperitoneally reduces progression of experimentally induced endometriosis and characterized cell proliferation patterns in eutopic and ectopic endometrial tissue using immunohistochemical PCNA labeling in 15 adult Wistar rats. Endometriosis was induced surgically, rats were treated for 10 days starting four weeks later with either vehicle control or thalidomide at 10 mg/kg/day or 1 mg/kg/day, and lesion size and PCNA-based cell proliferation index (CPI) were quantified for gland and stroma; histology confirmed endometrial tissue presence. Thalidomide significantly lowered CPI versus control in both gland and stroma for both doses, and also reduced lesion area, with no significant difference between the two thalidomide doses. The paper’s limitation is that it was an animal experiment with a small sample size, used PCNA alone to assess proliferation, and statistical analysis relied on paired comparisons at a single timepoint. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it tests thalidomide’s effects on lesion progression and PCNA-measured cell proliferation in an experimentally induced rat endometriosis model.

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Abstract

Abstract Objective To analyze the effect of thalidomide on the progression of endometriotic lesions experimentally induced in rats and to characterize the pattern of cell proliferation by immunohistochemical Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) labeling of eutopic and ectopic endometrium. Methods Fifteen female Wistar rats underwent laparotomy for endometriosis induction by resection of one uterine horn, isolation of the endometrium and fixation of a tissue segment to the pelvic peritoneum. Four weeks after, the animals were divided into 3 groups: control (I), 10mg/kg/day (II) and 1mg/kg/day (III) intraperitoneal thalidomide for 10 days. The lesion was excised together with the opposite uterine horn for endometrial gland and stroma analysis. Eutopic and ectopic endometrial tissue was submitted to immunohistochemistry for analysis of cell proliferation by PCNA labeling and the cell proliferation index (CPI) was calculated as the number of labeled cells per 1,000 cells. Results Group I showed a mean CPI of 0.248 ± 0.0513 in the gland and of 0.178 ± 0.046 in the stroma. In contrast, Groups II and III showed a significantly lower CPI, that is, 0.088 ± 0.009 and 0.080 ± 0.021 for the gland (p < 0.001) and 0.0945 ± 0.0066 and 0.075 ± 0.018 for the stroma (p < 0.001), respectively. Also, the mean lesion area of Group I was 69.2 mm2, a significantly higher value compared with Group II (49.4 mm2, p = 0.023) and Group III (48.6 mm2, p = 0.006). No significant difference was observed between Groups II and III. Conclusion Thalidomide proved to be effective in reducing the lesion area and CPI of the experimental endometriosis implants both at the dose of 1 mg/kg/day and at the dose of 10 mg/kg/day.

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Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Angiogenesis Inhibitors Cell Proliferation Endometriosis Endometrium Thalidomide Angiogenesis Inhibitors Animals Biomarkers Biomarkers Cell Proliferation Disease Models, Animal Dose-Response Relationship, Drug Endometriosis Endometrium Female Humans Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen Rats, Wistar Thalidomide

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