Functional Implications of Estrogen and Progesterone Receptors Expression in Adenomyosis, Potential Targets for Endocrinological Therapy

Maria Sztachelska, Donata Ponikwicka‐Tyszko, Donata Ponikwicka-Tyszko, Lydia Martínez-Rodrigo, Piotr Bernaczyk, Ewelina Palak, Weronika Półchłopek, Tomasz Bielawski, Sławomir Wołczyński
Journal of clinical medicine · 2022 · vol. 11(15) , pp. 4407 · doi:10.3390/jcm11154407 · PMID:35956024 · W4288444174
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 12 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This study characterized estrogen and progesterone receptor expression in adenomyosis, finding upregulated mPRα, mPRβ, and ERβ, and confirmed estradiol increases cell proliferation while progesterone affects prolactin secretion.

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Abstract

Adenomyosis is a common gynaecological disease associated with the presence of endometrial lesions in the uterine myometrium. Estrogens have been proven to be the crucial hormones driving the growth of adenomyosis. Little is known about the distinct mechanisms of progesterone action in adenomyosis. Hence, in this study, we decided to characterize the expression of all nuclear and membrane estrogen and progesterone receptors. Additionally, as a functional investigation, we monitored prolactin production and cell proliferation after estradiol and progesterone treatments. We confirmed the presence of all nuclear and membrane estrogen and progesterone receptors in adenomyotic lesions at gene and protein levels. The expression of membrane progesterone receptors α and β (mPRα, mPRβ) as well as estrogen receptor β (ERβ) was upregulated in adenomyosis compared to normal myometrium. Estradiol significantly increased adenomyotic cell proliferation. Progesterone and cAMP upregulated prolactin secretion in adenomyosis in the same pattern as in the normal endometrium. In the present study, we showed the functional link between estradiol action and adenomyotic cell proliferation, as well as progesterone and prolactin production. Our findings provide novel insights into the sex steroid receptor expression pattern and potential regulated pathways in adenomyosis, suggesting that all receptors play an important role in adenomyosis pathophysiology.

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adenomyosis

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