Background: Endometriosis is an idiopathic gynecological condition affecting women with pelvic pain and infertility in reproductive ages. Due to preventive and therapeutic effects of soy isoflavones (SI) and broccoli extract (BE) on tumor angiogenesis, inflammation and oxidative stress and since endometriosis is accompanied by chronic inflammation, in this study, we aim to evaluate the potential role of these compounds on the pathological scores of endometriosis and also consider the expression level of the gene markers of autophagy, apoptosis, and oxidative stress in an endometriosis rat model.
Materials and methods: In the present experimental study, 45 mature female Sprague- Dawley rats weighing 220 ± 20 g at the age of eight weeks with surgically induced endometriosis was divided into five groups and treated for six weeks with normal saline (control group), BE, SI, BE+SI by oral gavage, and also Diphereline intramuscularly. The histopathological scores of the endometrial implants (0, 1, 2, 3: no, poorly, moderately and well-preserved epithelial layers, respectively) and the mRNA expression level of Bcl-2, Bax, Caspase-3, Beclin-1, Lc3, and Sod within peritoneal tissue were compared among the groups.
Results: Pathologic scores of the implants in the Diphereline (1.2 ± 0.27) and BE+SI (1.2 ± 0.41) groups were declined significantly in comparison with the control group (2.08 ± 0.44) (P≤0.001). In the endometriotic structures, the mRNA expression levels of our target genes were improved significantly (P≤0.01) in comparison with the control group.
Conclusion: The findings of the current study demonstrated that the simultaneous consumption of a certain amount of broccoli extract and SI can be considered as a promising therapeutic strategy for treatment of endometriosis.
Keywords: Endometriosis; Female; Gene expression; Natural products; Rats.