Role of Versican in the Pathogenesis of Peritoneal Endometriosis

Sampson's theory cannot explain why only some cycling women develop peritoneal endometriosis. Few studies have focused on the pelvic peritoneum, which receives regurgitated endometrial tissues. We hypothesized that molecular alterations in the peritoneum are involved in the development of peritoneal endometriosis and conducted a microarray analysis to compare macroscopically normal peritoneum sampled from women with peritoneal endometriosis (endometriotic peritoneum) and those without (non-endometriotic peritoneum). Versican, a major proteoglycan component of the extracellular matrix, is one of the molecules up-regulated in endometriotic peritoneum.