Effect Of Leflunomide On The Transplanted Endometriosis Lesions In SD Rat

The incidence of endometriosis often causes infertility,dysmenorrhea dyspareunia and chronic pelvic pain.Although endometriosis is a kind of benign disease,it has many similar charaeters to malignant disease,such as cellullar proliferation,infiltration and recidivation.The treatments of endometriosis include surgery and hormone modulation for a long time,but the curative effect is not ideal..So far, recurrence is the key point to treatment of endometriosis because the true cause of the disease is ambiguous, all of the therapies are lack of the exaet target.It is very urgent to find out the pathogenesis of endometriosis in oder to get a effective pathway for trealment.ObjectiveBy raising and observing the SD rat endometriosis model in this research, To investigate the effects of immunomodulatory agent leflunomide on the growth of transplanted endometriosis lesions in SD rat.Methods1,Endometriosis was surgically induced in rats by autologous transplantation.2,After three weeks of transplantation,35 mg·kg-1·d-1 leflunomide to the LEF group (n=18)and 1ml·kg-1·d-1 saline to the control group(n=18),blank control group (n=15). all the treatment lasted for three weeks.The treatment period is 3 weeks,and the change of diet,defecation/weight of the rats were observed.3,Ectopic uterine tissues were measured in situ using a caliper;the expression of TNF-a,NF-κB were determined immunohistochemically and TNF-a were determined radioimmunoassay.Results1,Observed typical endometrial glands and stroma were significant in implantations rats,achievement ratio 80%.2,The body weight were no significantly different among 3 groups(P>0.05);3,After drug, the volumes of explants had statistically significant difference of model group and LEF group (P<0.05);LEF group between before drug and after drug, the volumes of explants had statistically significant difference (P<0.05).4,After drug, the NF-κB level of explants of two groups had statistically significant difference (P<0.05).5,After drug, the TNF-a level of explants of two groups had statistically significant difference (P<0.05).6,Before drug, the TNF-a level of blood serum of model group and blank group had statistically significant difference (P<0.05); after drug,the TNF-a level of blood serum of model group and LEF group had statistically significant difference (P<0.05).LEF group between before drug and after drug, the TNF-a level of blood serum had statistically significant difference (P<0.05).ConclusionsThese findings suggest LEF is effective to treat endometriosis in SD rats,which may suggest that the application of LEF may be a potential therapeutic method for the treatment of endometriosis.