Endometriosis linked to embryo defects

CHICAGO, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher links endometriosis to abnormalities resulting from defects in the early embryo.

Endometriosis is a disease that can cause pain and infertility in woman.

Dr. Serdar Bulun of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago links the disease to molecular abnormalities including a progesterone receptor that is inappropriately turned off and the presence of a enzyme -- aromatase -- that triggers estrogen production.

"This may be a disease that women are born with," Bulun says in a statement. "Perhaps when a baby girl is born, it has already been determined that she is predisposed to have endometriosis. Maybe research can now be directed toward the fetal origins of the disease and raise the awareness of how the disease develops."

The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, identifies a protein -- SF1 -- as key to producing an enzyme called aromatase that was only found only in endometrium tissue located outside the uterine lining.

"Estrogen is like fuel for fire in endometriosis," Bulun says. "It triggers the endometriosis and makes it grow fast."

Bulun launched clinical trials in 2004 and 2005 testing aromatase inhibitors -- currently used in breast cancer treatment -- for women with endometriosis to block estrogen formation and secondarily improve progesterone responsiveness.