| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北醫學大學 === 生物醫學材料研究所 === 95 === Endometriosis is a common chronic gynecological disease affecting the female population during their reproductive life. The definition of endometriosis is presence of endometrial glands and stroma within the pelvic peritoneum and other extrauterine sites. The common clinical symptoms of endometriosis are pelvic pain and infertility. Until now, the pathogenesis of endometriosis remains poorly defined. The most widely accepted theory is Sampson''s theory of retrograde menstruation. Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common cause of bacterially-acquired sexually transmitted disease. It can induce pelvic pain, uterus and fallopian tubes adhesion formation. The symptoms caused by Chlamydia trachomatis infection are similar to endometriosis. For this reason, the study aims to investigate the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis in women with endometriosis. Peritoneal fluids, obtained from patient were assayed for Chlamydia trachomatis by ELISA and PCR. The percentage of positive was higher in peritoneal fluids from women with endometriosis than in the control. Our studies demonstrated that genital tract test for Chlamydia trachomatis may not sufficient to identify the infection of Chlamydia trachomatis in patients with endometriosis. Endometriosis maybe related to the upper infection of Chlamydia trachomatis.
Although endometriosis is a benign disease, its properties of adhesion, invasion and metastasis are similar to malignant tumor. Extracellular matrix (ECM) and cell adhesion molecules (CAM) are involved in cell adhesion and movement. Therefore, the second part of this study aims to analyze the differences in the expressions of ECM and CAM between eutopic and ectopic endometrium in patients with endometriosis and their expressions compared to women without endometriosis. Microarry and RT-PCR were used to analyze the mRNA expression pattern in endometrium. Western blot analyses were carried out to confirm the identified ECM and CAM expression in the endometrium. The results showed that SPARC (Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine), an extracellular glycoprotein, was expressed significantly in ectopic endometrium in patients with endometriosis compared to eutopic endometrium in the control women without endometriosis. The increased expression of SPARC in ectopic endometrium with endometriosis has not been reported in the literature. The possible roles of SPARC play in the progression of endometriosis are discussed.
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