Can we measure the severity of endometriosis?

Serum Leptin for Endometriosis Severity

Key Points

Highlight:

• Dr. Hussein group suggests that serum leptin can be used as a marker for endometriosis severity.

Background:

• There is no specific non-invasive serum marker for endometriosis diagnosis.
• Leptin has role in basal metabolism, reproduction, food intake, and also has immune-regulatory, proinflammatory, neoangiogenesis functions.
• Leptin is believed to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis.

Key points:

• A total of 60 BMI-matched people have participated; 30 with endometriosis and 30 without;leptin levels measured from blood samples.
• The serum leptin level is found to be significantly high in the endometriosis group compared to control group.
• No significant difference in the leptin level was found based on diverse symptoms (infertility, pelvic pain, and others).
• However, a significant difference is found with the surgical stage of endometriosis; higher leptin level in higher endometriosis stages.

Lay Summary

Endometriosis is an enigmatic disease associated with serious morbidity and change in the quality of life. Unfortunately, there is no specific test for the diagnosis of endometriosis. While many markers were evaluated in many research studies for the noninvasive diagnosis of disease including CA125, none were revealed to be of great benefit.

Leptin is a protein and a product of the ob(obesity) gene. This hormone has a role in basal metabolism, reproduction, and food intake. Leptin also has immune-regulatory, proinflammatory, and neoangiogenesis functions, so it is believed that leptin may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis.

Until now, it has not been studied whether leptin level has any correlation with endometriosis or not. To investigate this, Dr. Hussein group fromAl-Mustansiriyah University, College of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Baghdad, Iraq, has analyzed the relationship of leptin level in serum and the severity of endometriosis.

This paper was recently published in the journal “Obstetrics and Gynecology International”.

For this study, a total of BMI-matched 60 people, thirty with laparoscopically diagnosed endometriosis and the other 30 women do not have endometriosis were participated. The blood sample was taken from all the participants and the level of serum leptin was measured by human leptin ELISA kit.

Interestingly, the serum leptin is significantly high in the endometriotic group than in the control group. There is no significant difference between the level of serum leptin and symptoms, which divided into infertility, pelvic pain, and others. More interestingly, as the surgical stage becomes higher, the leptin level also increases. Based on this result, Dr. Hussein group suggests that serum leptin level can be used as a marker for the severity of endometriosis.

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32963544/