Integrative Metabolomic Analysis of Serum and Selected Serum Exosomal microRNA in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer.

Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) remains a lethal disease due to the absence of effective therapies. A more comprehensive understanding of molecular events, encompassing the dysregulation of microRNAs (miRs) and metabolic reprogramming, holds the potential to unveil precise mechanisms underlying mCRPC. This study aims to assess the expression of selected serum exosomal miRs (miR-15a, miR-16, miR-19a-3p, miR-21, and miR-141a-3p) alongside serum metabolomic profiling and their correlation in patients with mCRPC and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). Blood serum samples from mCRPC patients (n = 51) and BPH patients (n = 48) underwent metabolome analysis through 1H-NMR spectroscopy. The expression levels of serum exosomal miRs in mCRPC and BPH patients were evaluated using a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The 1H-NMR metabolomics analysis revealed significant alterations in lactate, acetate, citrate, 3-hydroxybutyrate, and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs, including valine, leucine, and isoleucine) in mCRPC patients compared to BPH patients. MiR-15a, miR-16, miR-19a-3p, and miR-21 exhibited a downregulation of more than twofold in the mCRPC group. Significant correlations were predominantly observed between lactate, citrate, acetate, and miR-15a, miR-16, miR-19a-3p, and miR-21. The importance of integrating metabolome analysis of serum with selected serum exosomal miRs in mCRPC patients has been confirmed, suggesting their potential utility for distinguishing of mCRPC from BPH.

Sensitive SARS-CoV-2 detection, air travel Covid-19 testing, variant determination and fast direct PCR detection, using ddPCR and RT-qPCR methods.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) monitoring in air traffic is important in the prevention of the virus spreading from abroad. The gold standard for SARS-CoV-2 detection is RT-qPCR; however, for early and low viral load detection, a much more sensitive method, such as droplet digital PCR (ddPCR), is required. Our first step was to developed both, ddPCR and RT-qPCR methods, for sensitive SARS-CoV-2 detection. Analysis of ten swab/saliva samples of five Covid-19 patients in different stages of disease showed positivity in 6/10 samples with RT-qPCR and 9/10 with ddPCR. We also used our RT-qPCR method for SARS-CoV-2 detection without the need of RNA extraction, obtaining results in 90-120 minutes. We analyzed 116 self-collected saliva samples from passengers and airport staff arriving from abroad. All samples were negative by RT-qPCR, while 1 was positive, using ddPCR. Lastly, we developed ddPCR assays for SARS-CoV-2 variants identification (alpha, beta, gamma, delta/kappa) that are more economically advantageous when compared to NGS. Our findings demonstrated that saliva samples can be stored at ambient temperature, as we did not observe any significant difference between a fresh sample and the same sample after 24 hours (p = 0.23), hence, saliva collection is the optimal route for sampling airplane passengers. Our results also showed that droplet digital PCR is a more suitable method for detecting virus from saliva, compared to RT-qPCR. Keywords: COVID-19; RT-PCR; ddPCR; SARS-CoV-2; nasopharyngeal swab; saliva.

MiR-126 and miR-146a as markers of type 2 diabetes mellitus: a pilot study.

INTRODUCTION: Despite known risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D), the research community still tries to discover new markers that would widen our diagnostic and therapeutic approach to diabetes. Therefore, research on microRNA (miR) in diabetes thrives. This study aimed to assess the utility of miR-126, miR-146a, and miR-375 as novel diagnostic markers for T2D. METHODS: We examined relative quantities of miR-126, miR-146a, and miR-375 in the serum of patients with established type 2 diabetes mellitus (n = 68) and compared these with a control group (n = 29). We also undertook a ROC analysis of significantly changed miR to examine their use as a diagnostic test. RESULTS: MiR-126 (p < 0.0001) and miR-146a (p = 0.0005) showed a statistically significant reduction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. MiR-126 also proved to be an exceptional diagnostic test in our study cohort, with high sensitivity (91 %) and specificity (97 %). We did not find any difference in our study groups' relative quantities of miR-375. CONCLUSION: The study proved a statistically significant reduction of miR-126 and miR-146a in patients with T2D (Tab. 4, Fig. 6, Ref. 51). Text in PDF www.elis.sk Keywords: microRNA, epigenetics, genomics, type 2 diabetes mellitus, miR-126, miR-146a and miR-375.

Circulating metabolites in the early stage of breast cancer were not related to cancer stage or subtypes but associated with ki67 level. Promising statistical discrimination from controls.

It was documented that the presence of malignancy in an organism causes metabolomic alterations in blood plasma which applies also to breast cancer. Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease and there are only limited known relations of plasma metabolomic signatures with the tumour characteristics in early BC and knowing them would be of great advantage in noninvasive diagnostics. In this study, we focused on the metabolic alterations in early BC in blood plasma with the aim to identify metabolomic characteristics of BC subtypes. We used 50 early BC patients (FIGO stage I and II), where no additional metabolomic changes from metastatically changed remote organs were to be expected. We compared plasma levels of metabolites against controls and among various molecular and histological BC subtypes. BC patients showed decreased plasma levels of branched-chain amino acids BCAAs (and related keto-acids), histidine pyruvate and alanine balanced with an increased level of 3-hydroxybutyrate. The levels of circulating metabolites were not related to BC molecular subtypes (luminal A/luminal B), histological finding or grade, eventually stage, which indicate that in early BC, the BC patients share common metabolomics fingerprint in blood plasma independent of grade, stage or molecular subtype of BC. We observed statistically significant correlations between tumour proliferation marker Ki-67 level and circulating metabolites: alanine, citrate, tyrosine, glutamine, histidine and proline. This may point out the metabolites those levels could be associated with tumour growth, and conversely, the rate of tumour proliferation could be potentially estimated from plasma metabolites. When analyzing metabolomic changes in BC, we concluded that some of them could be associated with the metabolomic features of cancer cells, but the other observed alterations in blood plasma are the results of the complex mutual biochemical pathways in the comprehensive inter-organ metabolic exchange and communication. In the end, statistical discrimination against controls performed with AUC >0.91 showed the very promising potential of plasma metabolomics in the search for biomarkers for oncologic diseases.

Establishment of PANDA - a new human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell line with 3D cell culture technology.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly aggressive type of malignancy with one of the worst prognoses amongst any type of cancer. Surgery is applicable only to the limited number of patients with locally resectable tumors and currently represents the only curative treatment option. Treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy can only extend patient survival. Despite advances in conventional therapies, the five-year survival of PDAC remained largely unchanged. New in vitro and in vivo models are therefore urgently needed to investigate this type of cancer. Here, we present the establishment and characterization of a novel pancreatic cancer cell line, isolated from a patient with PDAC. Cell line abbreviated as PANDA (PANncreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma) was established with an optimized 3D culture protocol published previously by our group. The new cancer cell line "PANDA" represents a novel in vitro approach for PDAC cancer research and new therapy testing.

The potential use of miRNAs in the diagnosis and prediction of metastatic lung carcinoma.

Lung carcinoma is the "top killer" of all malignancies in the world. Early diagnosis of lung carcinoma significantly improves patient survival. Screening with biomarkers from peripheral blood could detect more patients at an early stage of the disease. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) could be a possible biomarker. These are 21-23 nucleotide long single-stranded RNA molecules playing an important role in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene activity. Individual miRNAs have the potential to regulate genes responsible for cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, regulate cell cycle in cooperation with pro-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. In our study, we determined miRNA expression levels in individual samples of lung carcinoma patients and in a healthy control group. We used the reverse transcription method followed by qRT-PCR. The expression levels of the investigated miRNAs were evaluated in the QIAGEN GeneGlobe Data center software. We demonstrated the significance of miR-126 and let-7g as biomarkers of lung carcinoma in all clinical stages studied. We also observed significantly increased expression of miR-143 and miR-145 at the distant metastasis stage, and significantly decreased expression of miR-133a in the N2 disease group of lung carcinoma patients (N2 disease represents disease with metastases in the ipsilateral mediastinal and/or subcarinal lymph nodes or node). The investigated miRNAs showed no clear potential for detecting potentially resectable (N0-N1), locally advanced (N2) and distant organ metastatic (M1) lung carcinoma.

Correlation between α-synuclein and fatty acid composition in jejunum of rotenone-treated mice is dependent on acyl chain length.

Events associated with the progression of Parkinson´s disease (PD) are closely related to biomembrane dysfunction. The specific role of membrane composition in the conformational stability of alpha synuclein (αS) has already been well documented. Administration of rotenone is one of the best strategies to initiate PD phenotype in animal models. In the present study, daily exposure (14 weeks) of orally administered rotenone (10 mg/kg) was employed in a mouse model. The mitochondrial complex I inhibition resulted in elevated level of αS in whole tissue homogenate of mouse jejunum. In addition, we identified a strong intra-individual correlation between αS level and the specific esterified fatty acids. The observed correlation depends mainly on the acyl chain length. Based on the obtained results, it is suggested that there is a high potential to manipulate fatty acid homeostasis in modulating αS based pathogenesis of PD, at least in experimental conditions.

Supportive antimicrobial treatments in chronic wounds.

no Abstract Keywords.

Risk genetic polymorphism and haplotype associated with papillary thyroid cancer and their relation to associated diseases in Slovak population.

BACKGROUND: Risk for developing papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), the most common endocrine malignancy, is thought to be mediated by lifestyle, environmental exposures and genetic factors. Recent progress in the genome-wide association studies of thyroid cancer leads to the identification of several genetic variants conferring risk to this malignancy across different ethnicities. METHODS AND RESULTS: We set out to elucidate the impact of selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on papillary thyroid carcinoma risk and to evaluate the interactions of these genetic variants with associated diseases for the first time in the Slovak population. Six SNPs (rs966423, rs2439302, rs965513, rs116909374, rs1537424 and rs944289) were genotyped in 86 patients with PTC and 99 healthy control subjects. The association analysis and multivariable modelling of PTC risk by the genetic factors, supplemented with a rigorous statistical validation, were performed. One of the six SNPs rs966423 (DIRC3, OR=1.51, p=0.03) was significantly associated with PTC. Next two SNPs rs965513 (PTCSC2, OR=1.34) and rs116909374 (MBIP, OR=0.44) showed a suggestive association. Haplotype TTC (SNPs located on chromosome 14q13) showed a suggestive association with PTC (p=0.07, OR=1.55). In the PTC group, significant associations were observed between rs966423 (DIRC3) and ischemic heart diseases (p=0.009), rs965513 (PTCSC2) and diabetes mellitus (p=0.04) and haplotype 14q13 and musculoskeletal diseases. Next three associations rs966423 (DIRC3) and arterial hypertension; rs116909374 (MBIP) and other benign diseases; rs1537424 (MBIP) and disorder lipid metabolism, rs965513 (PTCSC2) and anti-Tg (thyroglobulin antibody) showed suggestive associations. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that germline variants not only predispose to PTC, but may also be related to other risk factors, including associated diseases. However, these associations were only moderate, and further multi-ethnic studies are required to evaluate the usefulness of these germline variants in the clinical stratification of PTC patients (Tab. 8, Ref. 37).

Metabolomic profiling of blood plasma of patients with lung cancer and malignant tumors with metastasis in the lungs showed similar features and promising statistical discrimination against controls.

Targeting metabolomic pathways is a promising strategy for cancer treatment. Alterations in the metabolomic state have also an epigenetic impact, making the metabolomic studies even more interesting. We explored metabolomic changes in the blood plasma of patients with primary and secondary lung cancer and tried to explore their origin. We also applied a discrimination algorithm to the data. In the study, blood samples from 132 patients with primary lung cancer, 47 with secondary lung cancer, and 77 subjectively healthy subjects without any cancer history were used. The samples were measured by NMR spectroscopy. PCA and PLS-DA analyses did not distinguish between patients with primary and secondary lung tumors. Accordingly, no significantly changed levels of plasmatic metabolites were found between these groups. When comparing with healthy controls, significantly increased glucose, citrate, acetate, 3-hydroxybutyrate, and creatinine balanced with decreased pyruvate, lactate, alanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan were found as a common feature of both groups. Metabolomic analysis of blood plasma showed considerable proximity of patients with primary and secondary lung cancer. The changes observed can be partially explained as cancer-derived and also as changes showing ischemic nature. Random Forrest discrimination based on the relative concentration of metabolites in blood plasma performed very promising with AUC of 0.95 against controls; however noticeable parts of differencing metabolites are overlapping with those observed after ischemic injury in other studies.

Breast Cancer and the Other Non-Coding RNAs.

Breast cancer is very heterogenous and the most common gynaecological cancer, with various factors affecting its development. While its impact on human lives and national health budgets is still rising in almost all global areas, many molecular mechanisms affecting its onset and development remain unclear. Conventional treatments still prove inadequate in some aspects, and appropriate molecular therapeutic targets are required for improved outcomes. Recent scientific interest has therefore focused on the non-coding RNAs roles in tumour development and their potential as therapeutic targets. These RNAs comprise the majority of the human transcript and their broad action mechanisms range from gene silencing to chromatin remodelling. Many non-coding RNAs also have altered expression in breast cancer cell lines and tissues, and this is often connected with increased proliferation, a degraded extracellular environment, and higher endothelial to mesenchymal transition. Herein, we summarise the known abnormalities in the function and expression of long non-coding RNAs, Piwi interacting RNAs, small nucleolar RNAs and small nuclear RNAs in breast cancer, and how these abnormalities affect the development of this deadly disease. Finally, the use of RNA interference to suppress breast cancer growth is summarised.

Effect of Cold Atmospheric Plasma on Epigenetic Changes, DNA Damage, and Possibilities for Its Use in Synergistic Cancer Therapy.

Cold atmospheric plasma has great potential for use in modern medicine. It has been used in the clinical treatment of skin diseases and chronic wounds, and in laboratory settings it has shown effects on selective decrease in tumour-cell viability, reduced tumour mass in animal models and stem-cell proliferation. Many researchers are currently focusing on its application to internal structures and the use of plasma-activated liquids in tolerated and effective human treatment. There has also been analysis of plasma's beneficial synergy with standard pharmaceuticals to enhance their effect. Cold atmospheric plasma triggers various responses in tumour cells, and this can result in epigenetic changes in both DNA methylation levels and histone modification. The expression and activity of non-coding RNAs with their many important cell regulatory functions can also be altered by cold atmospheric plasma action. Finally, there is ongoing debate whether plasma-produced radicals can directly affect DNA damage in the nucleus or only initiate apoptosis or other forms of cell death. This article therefore summarises accepted knowledge of cold atmospheric plasma's influence on epigenetic changes, the expression and activity of non-coding RNAs, and DNA damage and its effect in synergistic treatment with routinely used pharmaceuticals.

Comparative Proteomic and Metabolomic Analysis of Human Osteoblasts, Differentiated from Dental Pulp Stem Cells, Hinted Crucial Signaling Pathways Promoting Osteogenesis.

Population aging has been a global trend for the last decades, which increases the pressure to develop new cell-based or drug-based therapies, including those that may cure bone diseases. To understand molecular processes that underlie bone development and turnover, we followed osteogenic differentiation of human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) using a specific induction medium. The differentiation process imitating in vivo osteogenesis is triggered by various signaling pathways and is associated with massive proteome and metabolome changes. Proteome was profiled by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography and comprehensively quantified by ion mobility-enhanced mass spectrometry. From 2667 reproducibly quantified and identified proteins, 432 were differentially abundant by strict statistic criteria. Metabolome profiling was carried out by nuclear magnetic resonance. From 27 detected metabolites, 8 were differentially accumulated. KEGG and MetaboAnalyst hinted metabolic pathways that may be involved in the osteogenic process. Enrichment analysis of differentially abundant proteins highlighted PPAR, FoxO, JAK-STAT, IL-17 signaling pathways, biosynthesis of thyroid hormones and steroids, mineral absorption, and fatty acid metabolism as processes with prominent impact on osteoinduction. In parallel, metabolomic data showed that aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, as well as specific amino acids, likely promote osteodifferentiation. Targeted immunoassays validated and complemented omic results. Our data underlined the complexity of the osteogenic mechanism. Finally, we proposed promising targets for future validation in patient samples, a step toward the treatment of bone defects.

Common gene haplotypes of gelatinases and their tissue inhibitors in abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) involves complex dynamic remodeling processes in the aortic wall. Gelatinases (MMP2 and MMP9) and their respective tissue inhibitors (TIMP1 and TIMP2) play a crucial role during extracellular matrix (ECM) turnover in aortic tissue. In this study we characterized associations between the haplotypes of genes encoding gelatinase/inhibitor pairs and pathways involved in AAA, a total of 100 AAA patients and 192 controls were enrolled. For males, a significant decrease in the distribution of the minor G allele of the TIMP2 rs8082025 was observed in AAA patients (p = 0.01, 23.1% controls vs. 13.1% AAA). In addition, in males, the major TIMP2 GA haplotype was associated with AAA (86.9% AAA vs. 76.9% control; p = 0.009, OR = 1.997), whereas the TIMP2 GG haplotype (7.7% AAA vs. 13.9% control) was associated with protection against AAA (p = 0.046, OR = 0.518). The minor GAGC MMP9 haplotype was related to AAA for all study subjects as well as the males only subset (p = 0.011, OR = 2.202 and p = 0.025, OR = 2.156, respectively). Small differences in the distribution of gene haplotypes could be associated with different levels of gene expression and in turn influence gelatinases activity in AAA.

Cold Atmospheric Plasma: A Powerful Tool for Modern Medicine.

Cold atmospheric plasma use in clinical studies is mainly limited to the treatment of chronic wounds, but its application in a wide range of medical fields is now the goal of many analyses. It is therefore likely that its application spectrum will be expanded in the future. Cold atmospheric plasma has been shown to reduce microbial load without any known significant negative effects on healthy tissues, and this should enhance its possible application to any microbial infection site. It has also been shown to have anti-tumour effects. In addition, it acts proliferatively on stem cells and other cultivated cells, and the highly increased nitric oxide levels have a very important effect on this proliferation. Cold atmospheric plasma use may also have a beneficial effect on immunotherapy in cancer patients. Finally, it is possible that the use of plasma devices will not remain limited to surface structures, because current endeavours to develop sufficiently miniature microplasma devices could very likely lead to its application in subcutaneous and internal structures. This study summarises the available literature on cold plasma action mechanisms and analyses of its current in vivo and in vitro use, primarily in the fields of regenerative and dental medicine and oncology.

Short-Term versus Long-Term Culture of A549 Cells for Evaluating the Effects of Lipopolysaccharide on Oxidative Stress, Surfactant Proteins and Cathelicidin LL-37.

Alveolar epithelial type II (ATII) cells and their proper function are essential for maintaining lung integrity and homeostasis. However, they can be damaged by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) during Gram-negative bacterial infection. Thus, this study evaluated and compared the effects of LPS on short and long-term cultures of A549 cells by determining the cell viability, levels of oxidative stress and antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin LL-37 and changes in the expression of surfactant proteins (SPs). Moreover, we compared A549 cell response to LPS in the presence of different serum concentrations. Additionally, the effect of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on LPS-induced oxidative stress as a possible treatment was determined. Our results indicate that A549 cells are relatively resistant to LPS and able to maintain integrity even at high LPS concentrations. Their response to endotoxin is partially dependent on serum concentration. NAC failed to lower LPS-induced oxidative stress in A549 cells. Finally, LPS modulates SP gene expression in A549 cells in a time dependent manner and differences between short and long-term cultures were present. Our results support the idea that long-term cultivation of A549 cells could promote a more ATII-like phenotype and thus could be a more suitable model for ATII cells, especially for in vitro studies dealing with surfactant production.

Induced Pluripotency: A Powerful Tool for In Vitro Modeling.

One of the greatest breakthroughs of regenerative medicine in this century was the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology in 2006 by Shinya Yamanaka. iPSCs originate from terminally differentiated somatic cells that have newly acquired the developmental capacity of self-renewal and differentiation into any cells of three germ layers. Before iPSCs can be used routinely in clinical practice, their efficacy and safety need to be rigorously tested; however, iPSCs have already become effective and fully-fledged tools for application under in vitro conditions. They are currently routinely used for disease modeling, preparation of difficult-to-access cell lines, monitoring of cellular mechanisms in micro- or macroscopic scales, drug testing and screening, genetic engineering, and many other applications. This review is a brief summary of the reprogramming process and subsequent differentiation and culture of reprogrammed cells into neural precursor cells (NPCs) in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) conditions. NPCs can be used as biomedical models for neurodegenerative diseases (NDs), which are currently considered to be one of the major health problems in the human population.

A Comparative In Vitro Analysis of the Osteogenic Potential of Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells Using Various Differentiation Conditions.

Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have excellent proliferative properties, mineralization potential and can be easily obtained from third molar teeth. Recently, many studies have focused on isolation and differentiation of DPSCs. In our study, we focused on biological properties of non-differentiated DPSCs in comparison with osteogenic differentiated cells from DPSCs. We analyzed morphology as well as mineralization potential using three varied osteogenic differentiation media. After fifteen days of differentiation, calcium deposit production was observed in all three osteogenic differentiation media. However, only one osteogenic medium, without animal serum supplement, showed rapid and strong calcification-OsteoMAX-XF™ Differentiation Medium. Therefore, we examined specific surface markers, and gene and protein expression of cells differentiated in this osteogenic medium, and compared them to non-differentiated DPSCs. We proved a decrease in expression of CD9 and CD90 mesenchymal stem cell surface markers, as well as downregulation in the expression of pluripotency genes (NANOG and OCT-4) and increased levels of expression in osteogenic genes (ALP, BSP, OCN and RUNX2). Moreover, osteogenic proteins, such as BSP and OCN, were only produced in differentiated cells. Our findings confirm that carefully selected differentiation conditions for stem cells are essential for their translation into future clinical applications.

Liquid Biopsy as a Tool for Differentiation of Leiomyomas and Sarcomas of Corpus Uteri.

Utilization of liquid biopsy in the management of cancerous diseases is becoming more attractive. This method can overcome typical limitations of tissue biopsies, especially invasiveness, no repeatability, and the inability to monitor responses to medication during treatment as well as condition during follow-up. Liquid biopsy also provides greater possibility of early prediction of cancer presence. Corpus uteri mesenchymal tumors are comprised of benign variants, which are mostly leiomyomas, but also a heterogenous group of malignant sarcomas. Pre-surgical differentiation between these tumors is very difficult and the final description of tumor characteristics usually requires excision and histological examination. The leiomyomas and malignant leiomyosarcomas are especially difficult to distinguish and can, therefore, be easily misdiagnosed. Because of the very aggressive character of sarcomas, liquid biopsy based on early diagnosis and differentiation of these tumors would be extremely helpful. Moreover, after excision of the tumor, liquid biopsy can contribute to an increased knowledge of sarcoma behavior at the molecular level, especially on the formation of metastases which is still not well understood. In this review, we summarize the most important knowledge of mesenchymal uterine tumors, the possibilities and benefits of liquid biopsy utilization, the types of molecules and cells that can be analyzed with this approach, and the possibility of their isolation and capture. Finally, we review the typical abnormalities of leiomyomas and sarcomas that can be searched and analyzed in liquid biopsy samples with the final aim to pre-surgically differentiate between benign and malignant mesenchymal tumors.

Molecular and clinical attributes of uterine leiomyomas.

Uterine leiomyomas, also called uterine fibroids or myomas, represent one of the most common benign tumour types in women of a fertile age. Leiomyomas arise due to transformation of the layer of smooth muscle cells of corpus uteri - the myometrium. Despite frequent occurrence of this disease, the molecular mechanisms behind the origin and development of leiomyomas are still relatively unknown. Most predisposed are obese women and women of African origin. In more than half of cases, leiomyomas remain asymptomatic. Genetic factors also have an important impact on the development of these hormone-dependent tumours. However, the clinical and molecular characteristics of familiar and sporadic leiomyomas can widely differ. The main reason is the heterogeneity of this disease and the abundance of factors which can underlie their tumourigenesis. Clinical diagnosis of uterine leiomyomas without surgical interference can be hindered in the case of small, mostly submucosal leiomyomas or if it is necessary to avoid potential malignancy of tumour. Also, medical treatment of uterine leiomyomas cannot be nowadays considered sufficient with many medical agents still being tested only within clinical research. The main goal of this article is to summarise known facts about the aetiology of leiomyomas, risk factors that contribute to their development, known molecular-genetic aberrations connected with the presence of leiomyomas as well as the possibilities of their diagnosis and treatment.