Transcriptional expression of type-I interferon response genes and stability of housekeeping genes in the human endometrium and endometriosis

Anna L. Vestergaard, Knudsen UB, Ulla Breth Knudsen, Ulla B Knudsen, Torben Munk, Munk T, Rosbach H, Hanne Rosbach, Pia M. Martensen
Molecular human reproduction · 2010 · vol. 17(4) , pp. 243–254 · doi:10.1093/molehr/gaq100 · PMID:21156832 · W2117993574
Other OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 20 in-corpus citations
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This study profiled type-I interferon response genes and identified stably expressed housekeeping genes (HMBS, TBP, YWHAZ) for normalization in human endometrium and endometriosis tissue.

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

Abstract

Endometriosis is a painful chronic female disease defined by the presence of endometrial tissue implants in ectopic (Ec) locations. The pathogenesis is much debated, and type-I interferons (IFNs) could be involved. The expression of genes of the type-I IFN response were profiled by a specific PCR array of RNA obtained from Ec and eutopic (Eu) endometrium collected from nine endometriosis patients and nine healthy control women. Transcriptional expression levels of selected IFN-regulated and housekeeping genes (HKGs) were investigated by real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR). Stably expressed HKGs for valid normalization of transcriptional studies of endometrium and endometriosis have not yet been published. Here, seven HKGs were evaluated for stability using the GeNorm and NormFinder software. A normalization factor based on HMBS, TBP and YWHAZ expression was suitable for normalization of qRT-PCR studies of Eu versus Ec endometrium. In the endometrial cell lines HEC1A, HEC1B, Ishikawa and RL95-2, HMBS and HPRT1 were the most stably expressed. The IFN-specific PCR array indicated significantly different expression of the genes BST2, COL16A1, HOXB2 and ISG20 between the endometrial tissue types. However, by correctly normalized qRT-PCR, levels of BST2, COL16A1 and the highly type-I IFN-stimulated genes ISG12A and 6-16 displayed insignificant variations. Conversely, HOXB2 and ISG20 transcriptions were significantly reduced in endometriosis lesions compared with endometrium from endometriosis patients and healthy controls. In conclusion, appropriate HKGs for normalization of qRT-PCR studies of endometrium and endometriosis have been identified here. Abolished expression of ISG20 and HOX genes could be important in endometriosis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometrium Gene Expression Regulation Gene Expression Regulation Interferon Type I Adult Adult Cell Line, Tumor Cell Line, Tumor Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometrium Endometrium Female Female Humans Humans Interferon Type I

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

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. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (64)

Cited by (21)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-19T06:17:24.038039+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:08:21.741906+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK