Abstract
Background: Endometriosis results in dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain and infertility in reproductive-age women. However, no effective treatment methods have been applied to the disease, and the pathogenesis of endometriosis is unclear. Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the association between telomere maintenance and endometriosis development. Materials and methods: The telomere length of the postmenopausal endometria, eutopic endometria and their matched ectopic lesions in the proliferative and secretory phases was detected using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) methods, and the effect of telomere length maintenance on the proliferation of endometrial cells derived from endometriotic patients was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay with BIBR1532 treatment. Then all of the telomere maintenance genes were extracted from the Telnet database, and bioinformatics analysis was performed to uncover the role of telomere maintenance genes in endometriosis development. Results: Telomere length was longer in endometriotic patients' eutopic endometria during the proliferative and secretory phases, and treatment with a telomerase inhibitor inhibited the proliferation of epithelial cells and stromal cells. Furthermore, the telomere maintenance genes were enriched in several hormone-related pathways, with several genes differentially expressed between normal endometria and endometria derived from endometriotic patients. The nomogram constructed based on telomere maintenance genes also displayed good predictive value. Conclusions: Telomere maintenance may contribute to the development of endometriosis, with several related genes involved.