title: Evaluation of endometrial biomarkers for semi-invasive diagnosis of endometriosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the hypothesis that specific proteins and peptides are expressed differentially in eutopic endometrium of women with and without endometriosis and at specific stages of the disease (minimal, mild, moderate, or severe) during the secretory phase.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with endometriosis were compared with controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  University hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 29 patients during the secretory phase were selected for this study on the basis of cycle phase and presence or absence of endometriosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Endometriosis was confirmed laparoscopically and histologically in 19 patients with endometriosis of revised American Society for Reproductive Medicine stages (9 minimal-mild and 10 moderate-severe), and the presence of a normal pelvis was documented by laparoscopy in 10 controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Protein expression of endometrium was evaluated with use of surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The differential expression of protein mass peaks was analyzed with use of support vector machine algorithms and logistic regression models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data preprocessing resulted in differential expression of 73, 30, and 131 mass peaks between controls and patients with endometriosis (all stages), with minimal-mild endometriosis, and with moderate-severe endometriosis, respectively. Endometriosis was diagnosed with high sensitivity (89.5%) and specificity (90%) with use of five down-regulated mass peaks (1.949 kDa, 5.183 kDa, 8.650 kDa, 8.659 kDa, and 13.910 kDa) obtained after support vector machine ranking and logistic regression classification. With use of a similar analysis, minimal-mild endometriosis was diagnosed with four mass peaks (two up-regulated: 35.956 kDa and 90.675 kDa and two down-regulated: 1.924 kDa and 2.504 kDa) with maximal sensitivity (100%) and specificity (100%). The 90.675-kDa and 35.956-kDa mass peaks were identified as T-plastin and annexin V, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis of secretory phase endometrium combined with bioinformatics puts forward a prospective panel of potential biomarkers with sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 100% for the diagnosis of minimal to mild endometriosis.
authors.affiliation: Leuven University Fertility Center, and Experimental Gynecology Laboratory, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Cleophas M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Kyama
authors.forename: Attila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mihalyi
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gevaert
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Waelkens
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Simsa
authors.forename: Raf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Van de Plas
authors.forename: Christel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meuleman
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: De Moor
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: D'Hooghe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D004717:Endometrium / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011446:Prospective Studies; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers