Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite (FBE) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 2 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
Stem cell theory for the pathogenesis of endometriosis
, Yasunori Yoshimura 11 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, Keio University, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Proposed hypothetical causes of endometriosis include retrograde menstruation, lymphatic and vascular metastasis, iatrogenic direct implantation, coelomic metaplasia, embryonic rest, and mesenchymal cell differentiation (induction). Each theory, individually, fails to account for all types of endometriotic lesions, thereby implicating combined and/or type-specific mechanisms. Recent evidence supports the presence of endometrial stem/progenitor cells and their possible involvement in eutopic endometrial regeneration and differentiation. Thus an additional novel mechanism for the origin of endometriotic lesions is that they arise from ectopic endometrial stem/progenitor cells.
Keywords
- Endometriosis
- Endometrium
- Stem
- Progenitor Cells
- Pathogenesis
- Implantation
- Metaplasia
- Bone Marrow
- Regeneration
- Endothelial Progenitor Cells
- Endothelial Cells
- Review