Endometriosis in MRKH cases as a proof for the coelomic metaplasia hypothesis?

A diagnosis of endometriosis is based upon the histological identification of endometrial tissue at ectopic sites which are commonly located on the pelvic organs, the peritoneum and ovary. In rare cases, ectopic lesions can be found in other organs, such as kidney, bladder, lung or brain. Diagnosis is achieved by laparoscopic intervention followed by histological confirmation of endometriotic tissue.

Signaling by TGF-betas in tubule cultures of adult rat testis.

Although signal transduction of transforming growth factor-betas (TGF-βs) is well characterized in individual cell types, data about TGF-β signaling in a cellular context is still scarce. In this study, we used ex vivo tubule cultures from adult rat testis to investigate TGF-β signaling. We show for the first time in testicular tubules, that TGF-βs also signal via the BMP type I receptors, with ALK2 used by TGF-β1 and ALK3 and ALK6 by TGF-β2.