Inflammation of the adipose tissue in the retroperitoneal cavity adjacent to pelvic endometriosis

Kotaro Kubo, Kubo K, Yasuhiko Kamada, Kamada Y, Toru Hasegawa, Hasegawa T, Ai Sakamoto, Sakamoto A, Mikiya Nakatsuka, Nakatsuka M, Takashi Matsumoto, Matsumoto T, Hisashi Masuyama, Masuyama H
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research · 2021 · vol. 47(10) , pp. 3598–3606 · doi:10.1111/jog.14958 · PMID:34342087 · W3188362912
Other OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 6 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Retroperitoneal adipose tissue adjacent to pelvic endometriosis exhibits increased fibrosis, angiogenesis, M1 macrophage infiltration, and higher expression of FABP4, VEGF, and pro-inflammatory cytokines compared to control tissue.

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

Abstract

AIM: Peritoneal endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease particularly associated with macrophages. Of note, adipose tissues with fibrotic changes in the context of peritoneal endometriotic lesions are often observed during surgery. However, the characteristics of fibrotic adipose tissues in endometriosis are still unknown. In this study, we investigated the inflammatory status of retroperitoneal adipose tissues adjacent to pelvic endometriotic lesions. METHODS: Thirty-two patients who underwent surgical treatment were assigned to either the endometriosis (n = 16) or the control (n = 16) groups. Retroperitoneal adipose tissues around the uterus were collected from patients in both groups. Fibrosis was evaluated via Masson's trichrome staining. Macrophage infiltration, the expression of fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4), and angiogenesis in the retroperitoneal adipose tissues were evaluated via immunohistochemistry. The mRNA expression levels of cytokines was also evaluated in the adipose tissues using real-time PCR. RESULTS: There was more fibrosis and angiogenesis in the adipose tissues adjacent to the endometriotic lesions with a significantly higher level of infiltration of macrophages and a predominance of the M1 type in the endometriosis group compared to the control group. In addition, FABP4 positivity in the adipose tissues of the peritoneum was significantly higher in the endometriosis group versus the control group. Moreover, the mRNA expression levels of FABP4, VEGF, and proinflammatory cytokines were also significantly higher in the endometriosis group. CONCLUSION: Altogether, our results showed that the adipose tissue adjacent to endometriotic lesions are inflamed with fibrosis and angiogenesis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Adipose Tissue Adipose Tissue Endometrium Endometrium Female Female Humans Humans Inflammation Inflammation Macrophages Macrophages Peritoneum Peritoneum

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 (37)

Cited by (7)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-20T06:13:28.455750+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:31:51.421232+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK