Endometriosis Peritoneal Fluid Factors Involved in the Alteration of Decidualization Process

ABSTRACT

Endometriosis is accompanied by local and systemic proinflammatory dysregulation, which motivated us to screen for specific marker molecules of the endometriotic peritoneal fluid. Endometriosis affects up to 10 % of the women of reproductive age and is frequently associated with infertility. In the present study we analyzed the influence of endometriotic peritoneal fluid on the decidualization process, by measuring the Prolactin secretion. Since we found that endometriotic peritoneal fluid inhibits human endometrial stromal cells decidualization, we applied two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in order to compare the proteomic profiles of endometriotic vs. non-endometriotic peritoneal fluids and to identify the most significant protein spots associated with the endometriosis condition. We used 2D DIGE densitometry analysis followed by bioinformatics gene ontology enrichment of the putative proteins corresponding to the identified protein gel spots. Statistically significant pathway identification analysis was performed to pinpoint the most likely key pathways that the putative proteins would be involved in. The obtained results indicated the Toll-like receptor pathway, NFkB cascade pathway, and Cell surface receptor linked signal transduction pathways, as most significantly contributing to the pathogenesis of endometriosis.

Keywords:

• endometriosis
• decidualization
• two-dimensional electrophoresis
• factor analysis
• gene ontology networks enrichment analysis