Molecular Alterations in Ovarian Endometriosis

JARID2 contributes to epithelial mesenchymal transition in ovarian endometriosis

Key Points

Highlights:

• Endometriosis is a benign disease with biological features characteristic of malignant tumors, such as invasiveness and migration abilities.
• In malignant epithelial tumors, epithelial-mesenchymal transition plays a role in cell invasion, migration, and spread.
• JARID2 shows a role in epithelial-mesenchymal transition in several cancers.

Importance

• Once the role of JARID2 in epithelial-mesenchymal transition in endometriosis pathogenesis and biology will be understood, it may further be helpful in management.

What's done here:

• To examine JARID2 and its related proteins in ectopic and eutopic endometrium from patients with ovarian endometriosis and normal endometrium from a control group.
• In vitro studies to infer the role of JARID2 in endometriosis

Key Results:

•    JARID2 is overexpressed in ovarian endometriosis.
•    JARID2 expression is significantly correlated with the score of dysmenorrhea and the size of ovarian endometrioma
•    JARID2 expression is associated with pAKT overexpression and PTEN downregulation in ovarian endometriosis
•    Induction of JARID2 induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition in a cell line of well-differentiated endometrial carcinoma
•    JARID2 may induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition in ovarian endometriosis by enhancing the PTEN-AKT signaling pathway

Limitations:

•    Immunohistochemical studies and results are not well detailed.
•    The cell line used in vitro derives from an endometrial adenocarcinoma, therefore it is biologically substantially different from endometriosis

Lay Summary

Endometriosis is a benign disease with biological features characteristic of malignant tumors, such as invasiveness and migration abilities. In epithelial malignant tumors, it is believed that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), that is, the switch of an epithelial phenotype versus a mesenchymal one, allows for cell polarity and connection loss, favoring cell invasion and migration. Recent studies have reported the role of EMT in endometriosis. 

JARID2 plays an important role in the EMT of several cancers, but its role in endometriosis is unexplored.

Dr. Gu and coauthors investigated the role of JARID2 in ovarian endometriosis. 

This study, published in a scientific journal named Reproductive Biology, reported overexpression of JARID2 in ovarian endometriosis tissues and its positive association with both the size of endometriotic cysts and the score of dysmenorrhea. JARID2 expression was directly correlated with pAKT expression and inversely correlated with PTEN and E-cadherin expression. In vitro experiments confirmed these expression associations and showed JARID2's role in the migration and invasion abilities of Ishikawa cells, a cell line obtained from a well-differentiated endometrial adenocarcinoma.

Overall, this study supported a novel role for JARID2 in the development and progression of ovarian endometriosis through the induction of the PTEN/AKT signaling pathway, which favors the role of EMT.

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36640627/