Analysis of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression in different sites of endometriosis and correlation with clinico-pathological parameters

Anna Fagotti, Fagotti A, Gabriella Ferrandina, Francesco Fanfani, Francesco Legge, Lauriola L, Libero Lauriola, Gessi M, Marco Gessi, Paola Castelli, Castelli P, Barbieri F, Fabrizio Barbieri, Luca Minelli, Minelli L, Giovanni Scambia
Human Reproduction · 2004 · vol. 19(2) , pp. 393–397 · doi:10.1093/humrep/deh054 · PMID:14747187 · W2141373492
Other OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 49 in-corpus citations
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This study found increased cyclooxygenase-2 expression in the ovarian endometriotic cyst wall compared to other sites, but no correlation with clinico-pathological parameters or patient symptoms.

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

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have demonstrated the overexpression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in endometriosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of COX-2 in different anatomical sites of endometriosis and its association with clinico-pathological parameters in a single institutional series of patients undergoing operative treatment. METHODS: COX-2 expression was analysed by immunohistochemistry in 136 samples of endometriotic tissue from 103 patients affected by endometriosis. RESULTS: COX-2 immunoreaction was observed in 78.5% of ovarian endometriotic cysts, in 11.1% of peritoneal implants and 13.3% of recto-vaginal nodules. COX-2 positivity was not distributed differently according to age, pre-operative serum levels of CA125 and AFS score. Moreover, COX-2 positivity did not show any significant variation according to the subjective intensity of pain, as dysmenorrhoea, chronic pelvic pain, lower urinary tract or gastrointestinal symptoms, or according to infertility. CONCLUSIONS: Increased COX-2 expression in the endometriotic ovarian cyst wall was observed with respect to other extraovarian localizations. No relevant correlations between COX-2 positivity and clinico-pathological characteristics and symptoms of patients were observed.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_paindysmenorrheainfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Isoenzymes Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases Adult Adult CA-125 Antigen CA-125 Antigen CA-125 Antigen Cyclooxygenase 2 Cyclooxygenase 2 Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Female Humans Humans Immunohistochemistry Immunohistochemistry

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 (24)

Cited by (48)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-18T09:30:06.152893+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:02:19.201584+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK