title: Circulating cell-free DNA as a potential biomarker for minimal and mild endometriosis.
abstract: It has recently been reported that high concentrations of circulating cell-free (ccf) nucleic acids in plasma and serum could be used as biomarkers for non-invasive monitoring a wide variety of malignant and benign proliferations and inflammatory conditions. Endometriosis is one of the most common benign gynaecological proliferations with inflammatory activation in premenopausal women. Real-time multiplex polymerase chain reaction was used for synchronized quantification of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene sequence in nuclear DNA (nDNA) and the ATP synthase-8 gene sequence in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). DNA was extracted from 500 microl serum and plasma of 19 cases with endometriosis to measure the total amount of ccf nDNA and ccf mtDNA. The concentration of ccf nDNA in plasma was significantly higher in the endometriosis group than in the control group (P = 0.046). The cut-off value selected by a receiver operating characteristic curve could provide a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 87% to discriminate between the minimal or mild cases and normal controls. The finding of significantly increased concentrations of ccf nDNA in plasma of patients with endometriosis suggests that ccf nDNA might be a potential biomarker for developing non-invasive diagnostic test in endometriosis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Prenatal Medicine and Gynecologic Oncology, Women's Hospital, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zachariah
authors.forename: Seraina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schmid
authors.forename: Ramin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Radpour
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Buerki
authors.forename: Alex Xiu-Cheng
authors.initials: AX
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Sinuhe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Holzgreve
authors.forename: Xiao Yan
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Zhong
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004247:DNA / Q000097:blood*; D017931:DNA Primers; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D017931:DNA Primers; D004247:DNA