Inflammation and the Malignant Transformation of Endometriosis

ABSTRACT

We are conducting a study to examine the association between inflammatory markers in peritoneal fluid and driver mutations and immunohistochemical (IHC) markers of cell proliferation and invasiveness in endometriosis tissue. We will also evaluate whether inflammation-related epidemiologic factors and systemic inflammation (e.g., CRP, IL-6 plasma levels) are associated with inflammatory markers in peritoneal fluid. Data and specimens for this study have been previously collected from A2A cohort, a longitudinal cohort of women oversampled for those surgically diagnosed with endometriosis. This project consists of selecting appropriate individuals with peritoneal fluid, endometriosis tissue, blood, and epidemiologic data, accessing samples for biospecimen assays, and conducting analyses. Targeted sequencing is being used to identify our genes of interest, ELISA is being used to measure inflammatory biomarkers in peritoneal fluid and blood, and IHC to assess the tissue expression of selected markers. To date we have conducted the necessary pilot studies to ensure a robust workflow. Currently our work has been paused because of the COVID-19 pandemic and there are no results to present at this time.