The FASEB Journal • Research Communication Dendritic cells support angiogenesis and promote lesion growth in a murine model of endometriosis

ABSTRACT Endometriosis affects 10–15 % of women and is associated with pelvic pain and infertility. Angio-genesis plays an essential role in its pathogenesis. Den-dritic cells (DCs) were recently implicated in supporting tumor angiogenesis. As both tumors and endometriosis lesions depend on angiogenesis, we investigated the pos-sibility that DCs may also play a role in endometriosis. We induced endometriosis in 8-wk-old female C57BL/6 mice by implantation of autologous endometrium into the peritoneal cavity. We observed an abundance of CD11c DCs infiltrating sites of angiogenesis in endometriosis lesions. We noticed a similar pattern of infiltrating DCs at sites of angiogenesis in the peritoneal Lewis lung carci-noma tumor model. These DCs were immature (major histocompatability complex class IIlow) and expressed vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2. Peritoneal implanted bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) incorpo-rated into both endometriosis lesions and into B16 mela-noma tumors and enhanced their growth at 8 days com-pared with controls (5.12.5 vs. 1.50.5 mm2, n4 and 4, P<0.0001 for endometriosis; 67.615.1 vs. 22.714.6 mm2, n5 and 7, P0.0004 for mouse melanoma). Fi-nally, immature BMDCs but not mature BMDCs en-hanced microvascular endothelial cell migration in vitro (21951 vs. 9332 cells, P0.02). Based on these find-ings, we suggest a novel role for DCs in supporting angiogenesis and promoting lesion growth both in endo-