Curcumin inhibits endometriosis endometrial cells by reducing estradiol\nproduction

Zhang, Ying, Cao, Hong, Yu, Zheng, Peng, Hai-Ying, Zhang, Chang-jun
2013 · W7027852807
article OA: green CC0
🔓 Open OA copy Full text JSON View on OpenAlex
⚙ AI-generated summary by qwen3.7-flash, 2026-08-30 ⓘ

Curcumin suppressed endometriotic stromal cell proliferation and reduced estradiol production, with epithelial cells serving as the dominant source of estradiol in ectopic endometrium.

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

⚙ AI-generated deep summary by qwen3.7-flash, 2026-08-30 · read from full text ⓘ

This study investigated the mechanism by which curcumin affects endometriosis, specifically focusing on its ability to inhibit cell proliferation through the reduction of estradiol production. Researchers isolated and cultured both endometriotic and normal endometrial stromal and epithelial cells, measuring estradiol levels and cell growth rates after treatment with varying concentrations of curcumin. The results demonstrated that curcumin significantly reduced the proliferation of endometriotic stromal cells and lowered estradiol levels, particularly at higher concentrations, while confirming that endometriotic epithelial cells are the primary source of elevated estradiol in this context. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — specifically examining the inhibitory effects of curcumin on endometriosis endometrial cells via estradiol suppression.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Background: Endometriosis is a complex estrogen-dependent disease that\nis defined as the presence of endometrial gland and stroma outside the\nuterine cavity. Although the exact mechanism for the development of\nendometriosis remains unclear, there is a large body of research data\nand circumstantial evidence that suggests a crucial role of estrogen in\nthe establishment and maintenance of this disease. Objective: This\nstudy is an attempt to assess the effect of curcumin on inhibiting\nendometriosis endometrial cells and to investigate whether such an\neffect is mediated by reducing estradiol production. Materials and\nMethods: Endometriotic stromal cells, normal endometrial stromal cells,\nendometriotic epithelial cells and normal endometrial epithelial cells\nwere isolated and cultured. E2 value of cells and the effect of\ncurcumin on cell proliferation were evaluated. Finally, effect of\ncurcumin on E2 assay was detected. Results: Electrochemiluminescence\nimmunoassay results showed that E2 value of endometriotic epithelial\ncells was higher than the endometriotic stromal cells (p=0.037), while\nthe expression of E2 in normal endometrial stromal and epithelial cells\nwas extremely low. WST-8 result showed, compared with endometrial\nstromal cells, ectopic endometriotic stromal cells had a higher growth\nrate. After intervene with curcumin (10μmol/L, 30μmol/L and\n50μmol/L) for 0-96h, the number of endometriotic stromal cells was\nreduced and cells growth slowed, compared with 0μmol/L group.\nCompared with 0μmol/L group, E2 level was lower after treatment\nwith curcumin, especially in 30μmol/L and 50μmol/L group.\nConclusion: In summary, in this study we found that E2 is important in\nectopic endometrium, and epithelial cell is in dominant position with\nE2 secretion. Curcumin was able to suppress the proliferation of\nendometrial cells by reducing the E2 value.
Full text 2,371 characters · extracted from oa-html · 5 sections · click to expand

Abstract

Description

Background

Endometriosis is a complex estrogen-dependent disease that is defined as the presence of endometrial gland and stroma outside the uterine cavity. Although the exact mechanism for the development of endometriosis remains unclear, there is a large body of research data and circumstantial evidence that suggests a crucial role of estrogen in the establishment and maintenance of this disease. Objective: This study is an attempt to assess the effect of curcumin on inhibiting endometriosis endometrial cells and to investigate whether such an effect is mediated by reducing estradiol production. Materials and

Methods

Endometriotic stromal cells, normal endometrial stromal cells, endometriotic epithelial cells and normal endometrial epithelial cells were isolated and cultured. E2 value of cells and the effect of curcumin on cell proliferation were evaluated. Finally, effect of curcumin on E2 assay was detected. Results: Electrochemiluminescence immunoassay results showed that E2 value of endometriotic epithelial cells was higher than the endometriotic stromal cells (p=0.037), while the expression of E2 in normal endometrial stromal and epithelial cells was extremely low. WST-8 result showed, compared with endometrial stromal cells, ectopic endometriotic stromal cells had a higher growth rate. After intervene with curcumin (10μmol/L, 30μmol/L and 50μmol/L) for 0-96h, the number of endometriotic stromal cells was reduced and cells growth slowed, compared with 0μmol/L group. Compared with 0μmol/L group, E2 level was lower after treatment with curcumin, especially in 30μmol/L and 50μmol/L group.

Conclusion

In summary, in this study we found that E2 is important in ectopic endometrium, and epithelial cell is in dominant position with E2 secretion. Curcumin was able to suppress the proliferation of endometrial cells by reducing the E2 value.

Keywords

Curcumin, Endometriosis, Estradiol, Stromal cell, Epithelial cell Citation ISSN Related Outputs Collections Items in TSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

⚙ Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-html ⓘ

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

Condition tags

endometriosis

Citation neighborhood (no data yet)

We don't have any in-corpus citations linked to this paper yet. The paper's references may be in our DB but unresolved to ``paper_id`` (resolution happens at ingest when the cited DOI matches a row we already have). Run the cross-source citation reconcile pass to retry.

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-05-13T18:32:35.295212+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK