Expression of miR-21 &IL-4 in endometriosis

Reyhaneh Sadat Sandoghsaz, Fateme Montazeri, Hanieh Shafienia, Seyed Mehdi Kalantar, Atiyeh Javaheri, Morteza Samadi
Human immunology · 2023 · vol. 85(1) , pp. 110746 · doi:10.1016/j.humimm.2023.110746 · PMID:38155071 · W4390278569
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 5 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This study investigated the expression levels of microRNA-21 (miR-21) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) in patients with endometriosis compared to controls.

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

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis characterized with existence of endometrial-like tissue outside the uterus. Fibrosis of ectopic lesions is an important feature of endometriosis. IL-4 induces fibrosis via fibroblast proliferation, collagen production and myofibroblast differentiation. Increasing of miR-21 expression promotes fibroblast activation and fibrosis expansion. The aim of study was to evaluate the expression of miR-21 and its relationship with IL-4 gene expression in endometrial ectopic and eutopic tissues of endometriosis patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: Ectopic and eutopic tissue samples were taken from 20 women with endometriosis, and control samples were taken from the endometrium of 20 endometriosis-free women. The relative expression of IL-4 and miR-21 evaluated by Real Time PCR. IL-4 relative gene expression was significantly increased in ectopic tissue compared to eutopic (p = 0.025) and control tissue (p = 0.021). The relative expression of miR-21 gene in ectopic tissue was increased compared to eutopic (p = 0.850) and control tissue (p = 0.978) but these differences were not significant. Also, the correlation between IL-4 and miR-21 relative gene expression was not significant (p = 0.083). CONCLUSION: The increased expression of miR-21 in endometrium of women with endometriosis may upregulate the IL-4 gene expression and lead to fibrosis. Further studies may suggest miR-21 and IL-4 as candidates for diagnosis of endometriosis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Choristoma Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis

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 (36)

Cited by (5)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-21T06:12:49.409960+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-06-21T06:11:17.543578+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK