Potential Involvement of Iron Overload in the Pathogenesis of Endometriosis-Associated Infertility

Xiaopan Chen

doi:10.26717/bjstr.2020.24.004129

Abstract

Endometriosis is defined as the appearance of intimal tissue, including both endometrial glands and stroma...

Highlights

Iron deposits are typical features of endometrial lesions and increased iron concentration are observed in the pelvic cavity of patients with endometriosis [10,11,12], and the concentration of iron is related to the severity of disease [11,12,13]
The aim of this study is to review the current literature associating iron overload with endometriosisassociated infertility and to discuss the potential damage of iron overload on the functionality of key cells during the reproductive process, thereby contributing to the development of the infertility
This study found that an increased iron concentration is responsible to the decreased acrosome reaction rate, suggesting the increased iron concentrations found in patients with endometriosis may have adverse effects on the fertilization [17]

Summary

Introduction

Iron deposits are typical features of endometrial lesions and increased iron concentration are observed in the pelvic cavity of patients with endometriosis [10,11,12], and the concentration of iron is related to the severity of disease [11,12,13]. This deleterious effect on ovarian reserve together with the decline in oocyte quality suggest a general decrease in ovarian function in patients with endometriosis, which has been proposed to be associated with the iron-mediated toxic damage to the surrounding follicles, as higher levels of iron was observed in the follicular fluid from follicles growing close to the lesion compared to that in contralateral unaffected ovaries [23] Despite these findings, it remains uncertain whether iron overload may exert adverse effect on ovarian function, with one study concluding that iron diffusion from endometriosis lesion into the adjacent ovarian tissue does not markedly affect ovarian function [24]. It worth noting that still some other studies do not tend to support the idea that iron overload could compromise preimplantation embryo development [23,24]

Objectives

Conclusion