Unit of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Department of Human Pathology in Adulthood and Childhood "G. Barresi", University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, "Filippo Del Ponte" Hospital, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy.
Gynecol Endocrinol. 2020 May;36(5):441-444. doi: 10.1080/09513590.2019.1683821. Epub 2019 Oct 30.
Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent disease defined by the presence and growth of functional endometrial-like tissue, glands and stroma, outside the uterine cavity. Macrophages are broadly classified into pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages, and M2 macrophages, which have selective anti-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic activities and are able to induce immunotolerance and angiogenesis. Based on these elements, the aim of our study was to evaluate CD14CD68CD197CD80 M1 and CD14CD68CD163CD206 M2 macrophages in tissue samples from ovarian endometriomas of women affected by endometriosis at different stages of the disease. For each patient, we collected a biological sample of the cyst (ovarian endometriomas for cases and ovarian functional cyst for controls) during laparoscopy. We found that the number of both M1 and M2 macrophages was significantly higher in endometriosis group than controls, regardless of stage ( < .0001 for each stage versus controls). Moreover, our data analysis shows a trend in progressive decrease of M1 macrophages from stage I to stage IV; on the contrary, M2 macrophages show a specular trend compared to M1 macrophages, with a progressive increase from stage I to stage IV. This may contribute to the pro-inflammatory microenvironment in the early stages of the disease, and to the pro-fibrotic activity of the advanced stages.
子宫内膜异位症是一种雌激素依赖性疾病，其特征是在子宫腔外存在和生长具有功能的子宫内膜样组织、腺体和基质。巨噬细胞广泛分为促炎型 M1 巨噬细胞和抗炎型 M2 巨噬细胞，它们具有选择性抗炎和促纤维化活性，能够诱导免疫耐受和血管生成。基于这些因素，我们的研究旨在评估处于不同疾病阶段的子宫内膜异位症患者的卵巢子宫内膜异位症囊肿组织样本中的 CD14CD68CD197CD80 M1 和 CD14CD68CD163CD206 M2 巨噬细胞。对于每位患者，我们在腹腔镜检查期间收集了囊肿（病例为卵巢子宫内膜异位症囊肿，对照为卵巢功能性囊肿）的生物样本。我们发现，无论疾病阶段如何，子宫内膜异位症组中 M1 和 M2 巨噬细胞的数量均明显高于对照组（每个阶段与对照组相比，均 < 0.0001）。此外，我们的数据分析显示，M1 巨噬细胞从 I 期到 IV 期呈逐渐减少的趋势；相反，与 M1 巨噬细胞相比，M2 巨噬细胞呈镜像趋势，从 I 期到 IV 期逐渐增加。这可能有助于疾病早期的促炎微环境，并有助于晚期的促纤维化活性。
