Circulating inflammatory biomarkers and endometriosis lesion characteristics in the WisE consortium

Authors

Kathryn L. Terry, Boston Center for Endometriosis, Boston Children's Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medica School, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Amy Shafrir, Merrimack College, Boston Center for Endometriosis, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical SchoolFollow
Ashley Laliberte, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Allison F. Vitonis, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Boston Center for Endometriosis
Kurtis Garbutt, Oxford Endometriosis CaRe Centre, Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford
Mary DePari, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Christian Becker, Oxford Endometriosis CaRe Centre, Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford
Naoko Sasamoto, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Boston Center for Endometriosis
Krina T. Zondervan, Oxford Endometriosis CaRe Centre, Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford
Stacey A. Missmer, Boston Center for Endometriosis and Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Michigan State University

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

npj Women's Health

Publication Date

10-31-2025

Abstract/ Summary

Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory condition requiring surgical or imaging visualization for definitive diagnosis. How endometriotic lesion characteristics relate to circulating inflammatory markers remains unclear. We evaluated 11 inflammatory biomarkers, including interleukin (IL)-1β, -6, -8, -10, -16, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, thymus and activation regulated chemokine (TARC), monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1, -4, and Interferon gamma-induced protein (IP)-10, in 566 participants with endometriosis from the Women’s Health Study: From Adolescence to Adulthood (A2A), Endometriosis Oxford Care & Research (CaRe) study (ENDOX) and Endometriosis: Natural History, Diagnosis, and Outcome (ENDO) study to evaluate associations with endometriosis characteristics, including macrophenotype (superficial lesions only, versus endometrioma and/or deep lesions), lesion appearance (color, vascularity), and anatomic location. We observed nominally statistically significant variation in circulating inflammatory markers by lesion color, vascularity, and location but no significant associations between circulating inflammatory markers and rASRM stage or macrophenotype, which could be due to a small number of participants with non-superficial lesions.

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