A case-control study was performed comprising 25 infertile women with endometriosis and 44 fertile women without endometriosis as controls. Samples of endometrium and endometriotic peritoneal lesions of the same patient were harvested in the late luteal phase of the cycle. The expression of hTERT and GAPDH genes was measured by mRNA using qRT-PCR based on TaqMan methodology. Student t test was used to compare the values between the groups; p >0.05 was accepted as statistically significant.
The mean expression of hTERT in the endometriosis group was significantly high when compared to the control group (1.24 卤 4.67 vs. 0.31 卤 1.10, p聽= 0.026). When the expression of hTERT was compared in relation to disease stage, the group of moderate/severe endometriosis showed increased expression in relation to control group (2.59 卤 7.35 vs. 0.31 卤 1.10, p聽= 0.026). Regarding endometriotic peritoneal lesions, only one 1/25 expressed hTERT mRNA. This patient had deep endometriosis.
There was an association between the expression of telomerase (hTERT mRNA) and the genesis and progression of endometriosis.