study
Researchers may have discovered triggers of endometriosis
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Endometriosis is not recognized until late in many women, although it causes severe symptoms. However, researchers may now have discovered the cause of the disease – and with it a new way of treating it.
Endometriosis is a disease that, to this day, often goes undiagnosed. It affects around eight to 15 percent of all women between puberty and the menopause and is primarily responsible for severe menstrual cramps, but also for nausea and exhaustion and pain during sexual intercourse. Endometriosis can also be responsible for an unfulfilled desire to have children.
The disease causes cells to form on the outside of the uterus benign growths of mucosal tissue. This can cause inflammation and cysts, which not only promote increased bleeding, but also cause pain.
Are bacteria responsible for endometriosis?
What causes the disease has not yet been clearly clarified. Japanese researchers can now, thanks to a study have discovered a possible trigger: In tissue samples from affected women, certain bacteria, namely the so-called fusobacteria, could be increasingly detected. A total of 155 subjects took part in the study, about half of whom live with endometriosis. In these affected people, the fusobacteria could be detected in about two thirds of the cases, in the women from the comparison group without endometriosis, on the other hand, not even in every tenth case. The results of the study were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine published.
The researchers emphasize that they only discovered a correlation between endometriosis and the bacteria in investigations. Accordingly, it is not yet clear whether the fusobacteria are actually the trigger or rather a consequence of endometriosis. However, another test with mice confirms the suspicion of the cause. For this purpose, the animals were implanted with pieces of tissue that come from the lining of the uterus. The resulting tissue changes worsened when the mice were infected with Fusobacteria at the same time.
Do antibiotics help with endometriosis?
However, if the animals were treated with antibiotics, their condition improved. The number of endometriosis foci shrank, and in some mice the development of the disease was largely prevented. These observations suggest that treatment with antibiotics could help affected women manage the symptoms of endometriosis. In the future, scientists want to deal with this question with the help of clinical studies. The test with the mice cannot give a clear answer to the effect of antibiotics because their menstrual cycle differs from that of humans. Therefore, the results of the study should generally be viewed with caution.
source
Fusobacterium infection facilitates the development of endometriosis through the phenotypic transition of endometrial fibroblastsscience.org, as of 2023