The largest genetic study of endometriosis conducted to date has revealed new insights. The research by Turkish Cypriot Dr Nilüfer Rahmioğlu, in collaboration with research teams from Oxford University, has found evidence of a common genetic basis for endometriosis and other types of pain, including migraine, chronic back pain, and multisite pain following a worldwide study.
The results of the study are important starting points for designing new treatments that better target the subtypes of endometriosis (the endometrium layer that normally forms the inside of the uterus) and evaluating the possibility of using existing pain treatments for endometriosis.
Researchers at the University of Oxford, in collaboration with 25 teams from around the world, have published “the largest study to date” on the genetic basis of endometriosis.
This long-term study was conducted with DNA samples from 60,600 endometriosis patients and 701,900 healthy individuals.
The results of the study, which was conducted by the first author of the study Dr Nilüfer Rahmioğlu, Senior Research Scientist at the Wellcome Center for Human Genetics, University of Oxford and her colleagues were published in an article in Nature Genetics journal with the title ‘The genetic basis of endometriosis and comorbidity with other pain and inflammatory conditions’ on March 13.
Dr Rahmioğlu said, “Evidence has been found that there is a common genetic basis for endometriosis and other types of pain seemingly unrelated to endometriosis, including migraine, back pain and multisite pain condition.
The study also revealed that ovarian endometriosis has a different genetic basis than other disease manifestations.
“The results show that there are subtypes of endometriosis, opening new avenues for designing new medical treatments targeting these subtypes and using existing pain treatments for endometriosis.”
Dr Rahmioğlu also stated that the expansion of such studies is of great importance in determining the validity of the findings for all societies and that the Eastern-Mediterranean populations will start to take part in such studies with the Cyprus Women’s Health Research (COHERE) Initiative project.
