BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Fragmentary progress in endometriosis

June 28, 2012 7:00 AM UTC

A team from the Baylor College of Medicine has treated endometriosis in mice by blocking a pathway that produces a fragment of nuclear receptor coactivator 1 in endometrial tissue.1 Now, small molecule inhibitors are needed to elucidate the fragment's precise role in endometriosis and determine whether other pathway components are potential disease targets as well.

Endometriosis affects about 10% of women of reproductive age and involves the ectopic growth of tissue from the uterine lining (endometrium) in the peritoneal cavity, resulting in pelvic pain, infertility and other symptoms. The underlying pathogenesis of the disease is not well understood. What is known is that endometriotic lesions produce high levels of estrogen that enable growth of the lesion...