Endo Genome: Could a possible genetic link be made to endometriosis?

If the heritable inquiry of endometriosis has ever crossed your mind, you may be onto something of a high medical complexity advancement. 

Photo Credit: Nuffield Dept. of Women's & Reproductive Health

Krina Zondervan, professor of Reproductive & Genomic Epidemiology, head of the Nuffield Department of Women’s Reproductive Health, and co-director of the Oxford Endometriosis CaRe Centre, has a research team combined of genomic, molecular, and environmental epidemiological researchers to study women's health disorders. Their focus is endometriosis. 

The genetic analysis strongly indicates that individuals with endometriosis have heritable traits to other family members. A project featuring a collaboration of Zondervan and her colleagues identified that women with the more severe condition (stage III/IV) of endometriosis with widespread adhesions possess variants of a gene identified as NPSR1. Noting that less severe stages (I/II) are more confined to the abdominal area, without widespread adhesions. This gene finding is also related to a similar finding in non-human female primates with endometriosis. The NPSR1 protein is known to reduce pain and inflammation, suggesting–without proof–that the NPSR1 may be a treatment for endometriosis. 

Read more about the non-hormonal therapeutics for endometriosis here.