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. 2023 Jan 13;24(2):1619.
doi: 10.3390/ijms24021619.

The Influence of Lactoferrin in Plasma and Peritoneal Fluid on Iron Metabolism in Women with Endometriosis

Ewa Skarżyńska  1 , Monika Wróbel  2 , Hanna Zborowska  3 , Mateusz Franciszek Kołek  4 , Grzegorz Mańka  5 , Mariusz Kiecka  5 , Michał Lipa  2 , Damian Warzecha  2 , Robert Spaczyński  6 , Piotr Piekarski  7 , Beata Banaszewska  8 , Artur Jakimiuk  9   10 , Tadeusz Issat  11 , Wojciech Rokita  12   13 , Jakub Młodawski  12   13 , Maria Szubert  14   15 , Piotr Sieroszewski  14   16 , Grzegorz Raba  17   18 , Kamil Szczupak  17   18 , Tomasz Kluz  19 , Marek Kluza  19 , Mirosław Wielgoś  2 , Barbara Lisowska-Myjak  1 , Piotr Laudański  2   20   21   22
Affiliations

The Influence of Lactoferrin in Plasma and Peritoneal Fluid on Iron Metabolism in Women with Endometriosis

Ewa Skarżyńska et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between lactoferrin and iron and its binding proteins in women with endometriosis by simultaneously measuring these parameters in plasma and peritoneal fluid. Ninety women were evaluated, of whom 57 were confirmed as having endometriosis. Lactoferrin was measured by ELISA, transferrin, ferritin and iron on a Cobas 8000 analyser. Lactoferrin and transferrin in peritoneal fluid were lower compared to plasma, in contrast to ferritin and iron. In plasma, lactoferrin showeds associations with iron and transferrin in endometriosis and with ferritin in the group without endometriosis. Lactoferrin in peritoneal fluid correlated with lactoferrin, iron and transferrin of plasma in patients without endometriosis. The ratio of lactoferrin concentration in peritoneal fluid to plasma differentiated stage I versus IV of endometriosis and was negatively correlated with the iron ratio in patients without endometriosis. The ferritin ratio differentiated women with and without endometriosis. The very high ferritin ratios, especially in advanced stages of endometriosis, suggest the protective involvement of this protein in peritoneal fluid and the loss of this role by lactoferrin. The results demonstrate the validity of assessing iron metabolism in women with endometriosis, which may be useful as a marker of the disease and its progression.

Keywords: endometriosis; ferritin; iron; lactoferrin; transferrin.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparison of concentrations of tested variables:; lactoferrin (LF), ferritin (FT), transferrin (TF) and iron (Fe) between the group of with (E, n = 57) and without (C, n = 33) endometriosis, respectively, for plasma (A) and peritoneal fluid (B). p-values from U-MannWhitney test for independent observations between group with endometriosis (E) and without endometriosis (C) for plasma (A) and peritoneal fluid (B). The dots represent a single score, the dash represents the median.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Peritoneal fluid/plasma ratios between Fe, LF, and FT in group without and subsequent stages of endometriosis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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