Dysregulation of the NT system may negatively affect ovarian function, leading to reproductive pathology (decreased ovarian reserve, polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis), female infertility and even epithelial ovarian cancers.
An important clinical implication of the study is that interference with BDNF and RANTES production, by selectively targeting the JNK and NF-κB cascades, may offer a tractable therapeutic strategy to mitigate the pain and inflammation associated with endometriosis.
Plasma BDNF might be a biomarker of ovarian endometrioma but not a useful diagnostic marker to detect other forms of endometriosis in women with painful symptoms.
Given the correlation between endometriosis and infertility, it is important to understand the role of BDNF in regulating endometrial cells proliferation and to develop new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of endometriosis-related infertility.
RESULTS There was no association between the BDNFVal66Met polymorphism and overall endometriosis (P> 0.05), whereas higher genotype and allele frequencies of the BDNF(Met) polymorphism were found in the Stage III-IV endometriosis (both P< 0.01) and endometriosis-related infertile patients (both P< 0.05).
Quantitative ELISAs revealed that NT-4/5 (806 ± 701 vs. 256 ± 190 pg/100 mg protein) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (121 ± 97 vs. 14 ± 11 ng/100 mg protein) concentrations were significantly higher in women with endometriosis.