What Have We Learned from Animal Models of Endometriosis and How Can We Use the Knowledge Gained to Improve Treatment of Patients?

Endometriosis is a complex disorder with a high socio-economic impact. Development of effective novel drug therapies which can be given to women to relieve chronic pain symptoms without side effects such as hormone suppression is urgently required, but progress has been slow. Several different rodent models of ‘endometriosis’ have been developed, the majority of which mimic aspects of peritoneal disease (e.g. ‘lesions’ in peritoneal cavity either surgically or spontaneously attached to wall, mesentery, fat). Results obtained using these models have informed our understanding of aetiology including evidence for differential expression of regulatory factors in lesions and impacts on pain perception and fertility. Refinement of these models to ensure reproducibility, extension of models to replicate ovarian and deep disease, complementary in vitro approaches and robust experimental design are all needed to ensure preclinical drug testing results in positive findings in clinical trials and translation for patient benefit. Access this chapter Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout Purchases are for personal use only Similar content being viewed by others

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Research on reproductive physiology and disorders including endometriosis conducted in the Saunders Laboratory has been supported by grants from the Medical Research Council (MR/N024524/1, MR/P00265X/1, G1100356/1) and the European Union (MOMENDO, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015). Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Editor information Editors and Affiliations Rights and permissions Copyright information © 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG About this chapter Cite this chapter Saunders, P.T.K. (2020). What Have We Learned from Animal Models of Endometriosis and How Can We Use the Knowledge Gained to Improve Treatment of Patients?. In: Sharpe-Timms, K.L. (eds) Animal Models for Endometriosis. Advances in Anatomy, Embryology and Cell Biology, vol 232. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51856-1_6 Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51856-1_6 Published: Publisher Name: Springer, Cham Print ISBN: 978-3-030-51855-4 Online ISBN: 978-3-030-51856-1 eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)