ENDOMETRIOSIS: CELLULAR IMMUNITY

Other studies examined lymphocyte activity among sufferers of endometriosis. In one such study, it was postulated that if an immune system misfunction were entirely the cause, women with endometriosis would show a higher incidence of infectious diseases and cancer. Increased illness, however, seems net to be a factor among the women who participated in this study. Newer experiments have focused on the effect of the cellular antigen CA-125, a cell that acts like a foreign substance in the body. How this antigen is produced by the body is unknown.

Two particular studies, one conducted by Dr. Donald Pittaway and colleagues at the Bowman Grey School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the other by Dr. Phillip Patron and colleagues at Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic, have both turned up evidence to show that women with advanced endometriosis had elevated levels of CA-125. as did women who had acute pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and unexplained infertility. However, patients with less advanced stages of the disease, and women who did not have endometriosis, tended to have similar and lower CA-125 levels. Still, these investigators believe, this antigen bears further study because of marked elevated levels of kin women with endometriosis. They are also looking for a possible test for detecting endometriosis by analyzing CA-125 levels, and antigenic proteins like it, in blood samples.

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