Gene expression analysis signifies the association of inflammatory proteins with the development of endometriosis

Abstract

Endometriosis is primarily defined by the presence of endometrial glands and stroma outside of the uterine cavity. The diagnosis and management of the disease are challenging because of the unclear pathogenesis and heterogeneity of clinical symptoms.The main focus of the current study is to analyze the gene expression profiles of individuals with endometriosis and to clarify key candidate genes and pathways involved in the disease pathogenesis using the integrated bioinformatics analysis. The following mRNA expression profile datasets, namely GSE23339 and GSE25628, were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with the following criteria p < 0.05 and [logFC] > 1 were identified. Totally, we identified 310 shared DEGs in the two datasets mentioned above. Subsequently, we conducted the enrichment analysis to discover the most critical pathways. The functional enrichment analysis showed that the identified DEGs mainly contributed to extracellular matrix organization and positive regulation of cell-cell adhesion. The PPI network was established for the analysis of DEGs, and the MCODE plug-in was applied for the characterization of the densely connected regions in the PPI network.Our findings propose a critical role of chemokines and complement system proteins in the promotion of endometriosis. These groups of genes might be considered a possible molecular signature for the early detection of endometriosis.