Endometriosis pain and epithelial neutrophil activating peptide-78 levels

Bárbara Gardella, Barbara Gardella, Mattia Dominoni, Andrea Gritti, Anna Arrigo, Silvia Antonucci, Giulia Vittoria Carletti, Valentina Musacchi, Giampiero Pietrocola
Scientific reports · 2022 · vol. 12(1) · doi:10.1038/s41598-022-07349-3 · W4214600711
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 13 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This study found significantly higher peritoneal and serum ENA-78 levels in endometriosis patients, with peritoneal and plasma levels correlating with pain severity.

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Abstract

Abstract Endometriosis is a chronic gynecological disorder involved in the pathogenesis of chronic pelvic pain, based on a probable up regulation of the inflammatory system. The objective of the study is to investigate the peritoneal and serum levels of ENA-78 with the severity of endometriosis symptoms (dysmenorrhea, chronic pelvic pain and dyspareunia) using the visual analogue scale (VAS). This is a prospective case–control study that included 53 symptomatic women with evidence of endometriosis and 53 age-matched controls who underwent elective laparoscopic surgery for benign diseases. The concentration of ENA-78 was assessed in blood and peritoneal fluid samples in the follicular phase. In peritoneal fluid and plasma, the concentration of ENA-78 was significantly higher in cases than in controls (p < 0.001). A significant correlation was observed between peritoneal fluid ENA-78 levels and the severity of dysmenorrhea (Spearman Rho = 0.237; p = 0.014), and chronic pelvic pain (Spearman Rho = 0.220; p = 0.022) in endometriosis patients. Plasma levels ENA-78 showed a significant correlation with the severity (VAS score) of chronic pelvic pain (Spearman Rho = 0.270, p = 0.005 for cases), though a weak correlation was evident between plasma levels of ENA-78 and severity of dysmenorrhea (Spearman Rho = 0.083, p = 0.399 for cases). In conclusion, chronic pelvic pain in endometriosis is caused by changes of local and systemic activated chemokine patterns. These modifications involve the relationship between pro-inflammatory, angiogenic and angiostatic chemokines that modulate the severity of endometriosis associated symptoms.

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Outcome instruments

VAS-pain

Condition tags

mesh:D004412mesh:D004715mesh:D017699endometriosischronic_pelvic_paindysmenorrheadyspareunia

MeSH descriptors

Chronic Pain Chronic Pain Endometriosis Endometriosis Laparoscopy Case-Control Studies Chronic Disease Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Female Humans Neutrophils Neutrophils Pelvic Pain

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 (46)

Cited by (13)

Source provenance

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