title: Dietary phytochemicals for possible preventive and therapeutic option of uterine fibroids: Signaling pathways as target.
abstract: A growing interest has emerged on dietary phytochemicals to control diverse pathological conditions. Unfortunately, dietary phytochemical research in uterine fibroids is still under construction. Uterine fibroids/leiomyomas are benign tumors developing from the myometrium of the uterus in premenopausal women. They may occur in more than 70% of women, and approximately 25% of women show clinically significant symptoms. These include heavy and prolonged menstrual bleeding, pelvic pressure (urinary frequency, incontinence, and difficulty with urination), pelvic pain, pelvic mass, infertility, and reproductive dysfunction. Due to lack of medical treatments surgery has been definitive choice for fibroid management. Moreover, surgery negatively affects women's quality of life, and its associated cost appears to be expensive. The molecular mechanism of fibroids development and growth is not fully elucidated. However, accumulated evidence shows that several signaling pathways, including Smad 2/3, PI3K/AKT/mTOR, ERK 1/2 and β-catenin are involved in the leiomyoma pathogenesis, indicating that they could serve as targets for prevention and/or treatment of this tumor. Therefore, in this review, we discuss the involvement of signaling pathways in leiomyoma development and growth, and introduce some potential dietary phytochemicals that could modulate those signaling pathways.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona 60020, Italy; Biotechnology and Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Botany, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Md Soriful
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.affiliation: Howard W. and Georgeanna Seegar Jones Division of Reproductive Sciences, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Segars
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona 60020, Italy. Electronic address: m.castellucci@univpm.it.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Castellucci
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona 60020, Italy; Department of Information Engineering, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona 60131, Italy. Electronic address: p.ciarmela@univpm.it.
authors.forename: Pasquapina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ciarmela
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D007889:Leiomyoma / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D064209:Phytochemicals / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D008517:Phytotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D051176:beta Catenin / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005419:Flavonoids; D064209:Phytochemicals; D051176:beta Catenin; C546842:MTOR protein, human; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases
keywords: Dietary phytochemicals; Growth factors; Medical treatment; Signaling pathways; Uterine fibroids