Macrophage migration inhibitory factor is involved in ectopic endometrial tissue growth and peritoneal-endometrial tissue interaction in vivo: a plausible link to endometriosis development

Pelvic inflammation is a hallmark of endometriosis pathogenesis and a major cause of the disease's symptoms. Abnormal immune and inflammatory changes may not only contribute to endometriosis-major symptoms, but also contribute to ectopic endometrial tissue growth and endometriosis development. A major pro-inflammatory factors found elevated in peritoneal fluid of women with endometriosis and to be overexpressed in peritoneal fluid macrophages and active, highly vascularized and early stage endometriotic lesions, macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) appeared to induce angiogenic and inflammatory and estrogen producing phenotypes in endometriotic cells in vitro and to be a possible therapeutic target in vivo. Using a mouse model where MIF-knock out (KO) mice received intra-peritoneal injection of endometrial tissue from MIF-KO or syngeneic wild type (WT) mice and vice versa, our current study revealed that MIF genetic depletion resulted in a marked reduction ectopic endometrial ti...