Lipopolysaccharide promoted proliferation and invasion of endometriotic stromal cells via induction of cyclooxygenase-2 expression.

Lipopolysaccharide-enhanced cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) expression and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production were compared in endometriotic stromal cells (ESCs) and eutopic endometrial stromal cells. Lipopolysaccharide promotes the proliferation and invasion of ESCs via up-regulation of COX-2 and PGE2 expression, suggesting that pelvic inflammation may promote the progression of endometriosis.

[The effect of theanine on oxygen-induced retinal neovascularization in the neonatal rat].

Purpose: This study was aimed to investigate the preventive effects of theanine treatment on a rat model of oxygen-induced ischemic retinopathy (OIR).

Methods: OIR was induced by maintaining the Sprague-Dawley neonatal rats in 80% oxygen. The rats were treated once daily with gastric gavage of theanine (5 or 50 mg/kg) or distilled water (DW) from postnatal days 6 to 17.

An epigenetic disorder may cause aberrant expression of aromatase gene in endometriotic stromal cells.

Objective: To examine the molecular basis of aromatase expression in stromal cell culture from endometriotic chocolate cysts.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Department of Biosignaling, Tottori University, Yonago Japan.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma ligand reduced tumor necrosis factor-alpha-induced interleukin-8 production and growth in endometriotic stromal cells.

Objective: To evaluate the influence of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR gamma) ligand (pioglitazone) on tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)-induced interleukin-8 (IL-8) expression in endometriotic stromal cells (ESCs) and on proliferation of ESCs.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tottori University Hospital, Yonago, Japan.

Apoptosis and endometriosis.

Apoptosis plays a critical role in maintaining tissue homeostasis and represents a normal function to eliminate excess or dysfunctional cells. Accumulated evidence suggest that apoptosis helps to maintain cellular homeostasis during the menstrual cycle by eliminating senescent cells from the functional layer of the uterine endometrium during the late secretory and menstrual phase of the cycle. BCL-2 family and Fas/FasL system have been extensively studied in human endometrium and endometriotic tissues.

Aberrant expression of keratinocyte growth factor receptor in ovarian surface epithelial cells of endometrioma.

Ovarian surface epithelial cells (OSEs) are considered to be the common source of endometrioma and epithelial ovarian cancer. The present study reveals that keratinocyte growth factor receptor (KGFR) messenger RNA was expressed in OSEs of endometriomas but not in those of normal ovaries, suggesting that autocrine KGF/KGFR and paracrine fibroblast growth factor 10/KGFR signaling loops may be involved with the proliferation in OSEs of endometrioma.

[The effect of Sairei-to on oxygen-induced retinal neovascularization in the neonatal rat].

Purpose: To study the effect of Sairei-to (ST), a Japanese traditional medicine, on oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) in rats.

Methods: OIR was induced by maintaining Sprague-Dawley neonatal rats in 80% oxygen for 12 days. The rats were treated once daily with oral administration of 0.