Endometriosis is often treated with progestins, which act as progesterone receptor agonists, although their exact mechanisms of action are not completely understood.
Progesterone receptor (PR) modulators are used in contraception and post-menopausal hormone therapy, and are under clinical development for reproductive disorders such as uterine fibroids and endometriosis.
Progesterone receptor (PR) is strongly associated with disease prognosis and therapeutic efficacy in hormone-related diseases such as endometriosis and breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers.
A comparison of PR and AR mRNA levels in the pelvic peritoneum of the endometriosis and the nonendometriosis groups revealed no significant differences.
An immunohistochemistry study demonstrated that the estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) were positive in the endometriosis part but negative in the cancer part, while the human EGF receptor (HER) 2 was negative or very weak in the benign part and positive in the malignant part in all three cases.
Defective CpG methylation affecting several genes that encode key transcription factors such as GATA6, steroidogenic factor-1, and estrogen receptor-β in endometriosis gives rise to overproduction of local estrogen and prostaglandins and suppression of progesterone receptor.
Efficacy, safety and recurrence of new progestins and selective progesterone receptor modulator for the treatment of endometriosis: a comparison study in mice.
Estrogen and progesterone receptor expression in macrophages and regulation of hepatocyte growth factor by ovarian steroids in women with endometriosis.
Eutopic endometria were collected from three sources: women with endometriosis who had a single PROGINS allele (from the progesterone receptor gene); women with endometriosis who had the wild-type progesterone receptor allele; and women without endometriosis who had the wild-type allele.