自噬与子宫内膜异位症的发生发展

Autophagy and the development of endometriosis

子宫内膜异位症是育龄期妇女的常见良性疾病,但其具有种植、侵袭、转移等恶性生物学行为特征,其发病机制至今仍未明确。内膜异位症难治愈、复发率高一直是妇科的棘手难题。自噬是细胞的一种自我维稳机制,广泛参与多种生理、病理过程。最近研究发现内膜异位症患者的在位及异位内膜细胞自噬水平皆异于正常内膜,故自噬可能与内膜异位症的发生发展存在密切关系,自噬也许能成为内膜异位症治疗的一个新切入点。

Endometriosis is a common benign disease among women of reproductive age, while it possesses tumor-like behaviors such as implantation, invasion and metastasis. And its pathogenesis is unclear up to now. It is intractable to handle because of difficult to cure and high recurrence rate. Autophagy is a catabolic process that maintains the cellular homeostasis and participates in a variety of physiological as well as pathological process. Recently,many studies have revealed that autophagy in both eutopic and ectopic endometria of patients with endometriosis was different from normal endometria. Therefore autophagy may play a crucial role in the development of endometriosis, so that intervention of autophagy of endometriosis could be a novel target of endometriosis therapy.