title: Serum adiponectin concentrations are decreased in women with endometriosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adiponectin is a pleiotropic cytokine originally discovered as an adipocyte-specific gene product. Serum adiponectin concentrations have been reported to be low in women with endometrial cancer, breast cancer and uterine leiomyoma, suggesting possible involvement of adiponectin in these estrogen-related diseases. We thus addressed the relevance of adiponectin to endometriosis, an estrogen-dependent disease, in the present study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Women with (n = 48) and without (n = 30) endometriosis undergoing laparoscopy were recruited in this study. Blood samples were collected, and serum adiponectin concentrations were measured using a specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The relationship between laparoscopic findings and serum adiponectin concentrations was analysed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The adiponectin concentrations in the serum of the women with endometriosis (median, 13.1 microg/ml; interquartile range, 10.2 - 16.7) were significantly lower than those of the women without endometriosis (15.9 microg/ml, 13.5 - 19.5; P = 0.008). A significant negative correlation was found between serum adiponectin concentrations and both endometriosis scores (R = - 0.307, P = 0.006) and adhesion scores (R = - 0.254, P = 0.026) of the revised American Society for Reproductive Medicine classification of endometriosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present findings suggest that adiponectin is implicated in the pathophysiology of endometriosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takemura
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Osuga
authors.forename: Miyuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harada
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Kaori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koga
authors.forename: Chieko
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morimoto
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hirota
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Yoshino
authors.forename: Tetsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yano
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Taketani
mesh_terms: D052242:Adiponectin / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D015233:Models, Statistical
chemical_list: D052242:Adiponectin