Dynamic thiol/disulphide homeostasis in patients with Uterine Myoma

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study is to measure and compare the dynamic thiol and disulphide homeostasis between patients with Uterine Myoma (UM) and healthy subjects.

Material and method: A total of 54 patients with UM who were diagnosed by transvaginal ultrasonography and 37 age- and body mass index-matched healthy individuals were included in this study. Thiol/disulphide homeostasis was measured by a novel automatic spectrophotometric method.

Results: The mean serum native thiol, disulphide, and thiol levels were statistically lower in UM group than those in the control group [(284.66±59.41μmol/L vs. 320.98±56.17μmol/L, P<0.0001), (17.27±5.59μmol/L vs. 22.38±6.93μmol/L, P<0.0001) and (319.21±61.69 vs. 365.76±61.46μmol/L, P<0.0001), respectively]. There were no statistically significant differences in ratios of the disulphide/native thiol, native thiol/total thiol, and disulphide/total thiol among patients with UM versus healthy control group (P=0.096, 0.092, 0.092, respectively).

Conclusion: It was found that the native thiol, total thiol, and disulphide levels in patients with UM decreased while the ratio of native thiol/disulphide remained unchanged.It is necessary to investigate whether these findings have a role in the etiology and clinical course of the UM.

Keywords: Disulphide; Ratio; Serum; Thiol; Uterine myoma.