Autophagy in endometriosis.

Hui-Li Yang, Hui‐Li Yang, Jie Mei, Kai-Kai Chang, Kai‐Kai Chang, Wen‐Jie Zhou, Wen-Jie Zhou, Li-Qing Huang, Liqing Huang, Ming-Qing Li, Ming‐Qing Li
American journal of translational research · 2017 · vol. 9(11) , pp. 4707–4725 · PMID:29218074 · W2976648279
article OA: green CC0 ⤵ 41 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This review discusses the role of aberrant autophagy in endometriosis pathogenesis and explores its potential as a therapeutic target for this condition.

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

Abstract

Endometriosis (EMS) is a common gynecologic disease that causes chronic pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, and infertility in women. The doctrine of menstruation back flow planting and defects in the immune system are well known and widely accepted. In recent years, increasing studies have been focused on the role of autophagy in EMS, and have shown that autophagy plays a vital role in EMS. Autophagy, which is known as the non-apoptotic form of programmed cell death induced by a large number of intracellular/extracellular stimuli, is the major cellular pathway for the degradation of long-lived proteins and cytoplasmic organelles in eukaryotic cells. Autophagy commonly refers to macroautophagy, which is characterized by autophagosomes (double-membrane vesicles). In normal endometrial tissues, autophagy is induced in glandular epithelial and stromal cells throughout the menstrual cycle. However, aberrant autophagy occurs in the eutopic endometrium and ectopic endometriotic foci, which contributes to the pathogenesis of EMS by promoting the hyperplasia of endometriotic tissues and stromal cells, restricting apoptosis, and inducing abnormal immune responses. Consistent with changes in autophagy levels between normal endometria, eutopic and ectopic endometria from patients with EMS, the altered expression of autophagy-related genes (ATGs) is also observed. Currently, many factors are involved in the aberrant autophagy of endometriotic tissues, including female hormones, certain drugs, hypoxia, and oxidative stress. Therefore, studies focusing on autophagy may uncover a new potential treatment for EMS. The aim of this review is to discuss the role of aberrant autophagy in EMS and to explore the potential value of autophagy as a target for EMS therapy.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_paindysmenorrheainfertility

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 (100)

Cited by (41)

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: 2026-05-13T22:20:07.505861+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK