Endometriosis - new research will help to find out the cause of the disease and determine effective treatment
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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In the world, many women suffer from a disease such as endometriosis, according to statistics, more than 170 million women and girls are affected worldwide. However, doctors have not yet accurately established the exact cause of this disorder in the work of the female body.
Recently, in one of the Massachusetts universities, the research team was able to determine the cellular activity, which, according to experts, can not only better understand the principles of the disease, but also develop effective methods of treatment. It should be noted that endometriosis is expressed in the fact that endometrial cells that lining the inner cavity of the uterus begin to grow outside the uterus, and adjacent internal organs are drawn into the inflammatory process. As scientists believe, the probability of developing endometriosis increases various external negative factors (ecology, harmful working conditions, etc.), the inflammatory processes of the female reproductive system, and heredity also plays an important role in this. Symptoms of this disease are expressed by abundant menstrual discharge and severe pain that can be given back. Women with endometriosis have problems with conception and bearing. However, not all women have the disease accompanied by severe pain and heavy menstruation. In some cases, endometriosis develops without special symptoms. What exactly provokes the development of this disease, experts can not say.
Currently, endometriosis is treated with hormonal therapy, which leads to medical menopause (artificial menopause). Also, surgical treatment is possible, but this treatment is only temporary.
Specialists, in the course of their research, decided to take for analysis the fluid from the abdominal cavity of voluntary participants in the research project and who suffered from various manifestations of endometriosis. Scientists evaluated in each sample taken the level of 50 proteins, in particular of the cytoxins, which regulate the immune response to infection. However, cytokines can independently provoke inflammation, even if there are no favorable conditions for the development of pathogenic microflora. As it turned out, with cytokines, endometriosis causes inflammation.
All the samples obtained contained some structure that included the activity of thirteen toxins associated with diseases of other internal organs of the woman. This kind of structure negatively affected the genital function of women. In the course of further research, it was possible to establish that the main regulator is c-jun protein. This structure is a molecule produced by immune cells of the body.
At this stage, experts have yet to determine which factor activates the immune response in the body of a woman. To do this, they will conduct a thorough analysis of tissue samples that were taken from women suffering from infertility as a result of endometriosis, in which significant lesions of tissues and adjacent internal organs are observed.
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