Prospective Evaluation of a Panel of Plasma Cytokines and Chemokines as Potential Markers of Pelvic Endometriosis in Symptomatic Women

Ana Luiza Lunardi Rocha, Ana Luiza Rocha, Érica Leandro Marciano Vieira, Erica L Vieira, Laura M Maia, Antônio Lúcio Teixeira, Fernando M Reis
Gynecologic and obstetric investigation · 2016 · vol. 81(6) , pp. 512–517 · doi:10.1159/000443956 · PMID:26871558 · W2274347969
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 13 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This study evaluated plasma concentrations of seven cytokines and chemokines in symptomatic women but found they were unable to distinguish those with endometriosis.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease for which no accurate peripheral diagnostic marker is available. Many cytokines and chemokines have been found altered in the plasma and peritoneal fluid of women with endometriosis compared to healthy controls, but little is known about their diagnostic utility to confirm or discard endometriosis among symptomatic women. OBJECTIVE: The study aims to assess the diagnostic value of a panel of plasma cytokines and chemokines to detect endometriosis in women undergoing laparoscopy for gynecological complains. METHODS: We performed a prospective cohort study evaluating simultaneously plasma concentrations of interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, MCP-1/CCL2, IP-10/CXCL10 and eotaxin/CCL11 in 75 symptomatic women (chronic pelvic pain, infertility or ovarian cyst) submitted to laparoscopy. Assays were performed by Cytometric Bead Array System. Endometriosis was confirmed by histopathological examination of surgical specimens. RESULTS: Plasma IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, MCP-1/CCL2, IP-10/CXCL10 and eotaxin/CCL11 concentrations were not able to distinguish the women who eventually were diagnosed with endometriosis. CONCLUSION: Although previously shown to be altered in women with endometriosis compared to healthy women, the tested cytokines and chemokines were not useful to predict the presence of endometriosis among symptomatic women. This finding suggests that inflammatory markers modified by endometriosis may also be altered by other conditions associated with similar symptoms, which limits their use in clinical practice.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosischronic_pelvic_paininfertility

MeSH descriptors

Cytokines Endometriosis Adolescent Adult Biomarkers Biomarkers Chemokines Chemokines Cytokines Endometriosis Female Humans Middle Aged Predictive Value of Tests Prospective Studies Young Adult

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (35)

Cited by (13)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:21:13.485820+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK