The relationship between structure and function of uterine junctional zone and endometriosis disease

Uterine junctional zone (JZ) was first described by Hricak et al in 1983, which is a low signal-intensity zone between myometrium and endometrium on T2-weighted MR images. Subsequent studies confirmed that JZ is located in the innermost layer of the myometrium. It has been confirmed that JZ dysfunction is strongly associated with uterine fibroids、adenomyosis、endometriosis, etc. In recent years, researchers have focused their attention on the ultrastructure of JZ , tring to find out the structural basis that caused the abnormality of JZ. This review focuses on the physiological characteristics and ultrastructure of normal and endometriosis disease uterus JZ. Key words: Endometrium/PA/PP; Endometriosis/PA/PP; Review