Immunology of Reproduction

Endometriosis is one of the most frequent gynecological diseases affecting women of reproductive age. It is an inflammatory, chronic, estrogen-dependent and multifactorial disease, whose main symptoms are pain and infertility. The difficulty in its diagnosis and its low popularity due to social and medical gender biases, as well as prejudices about menstruation, have made it an underestimated and denied disease throughout history. Several publications show the strong impact of endometriosis on the mental health and social well-being of patients, commonly causing depression, anxiety and emotional distress. Conventional therapeutics to treat endometriosis focus on removing the lesions through a surgical procedure and/or diminishing estrogen levels in blood. Unfortunately these strategies are often associated with adverse effects that make it impossible their long-term management, leading to high recurrence rates. In addition, pain and infertility remain unsolved. It is therefore urgent to find an effective treatment to control the disease and contribute to improving the quality of life of patients, focusing on the 3 main aspects of the disease in the same therapy: development, pain and infertility. Resveratrol is a phytoalexin produced naturally by several plant species and stored in their fruits. Several properties of this compound have been studied, including its activity as a cardiovascular protector, anti-carcinogenic, anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory agent. Currently, the antioxidant power of resveratrol is of particular interest in studies aimed at preserving fertility; and its anti-angiogenic and anti-estrogenic action has been proposed as a therapy that could inhibit the endometriotic lesions developmentfrom the recruitment and differentiation of embryonic and mesenchymal stem cells. Likewise, there are numerous evidences that reveal the potential of resveratrol to reduce or alleviate pain, in different models and pathologies. In view of this background, in this laboratory we study resveratrol in depth as an integral therapy for endometriosis, with the following objectives: 1) To evaluate the effect of resveratrol on the mechanisms involved in the development of endometriotic lesions in an ectopic site; 2) To evaluate resveratrol as a protector of ovarian reserve in peritoneal and ovarian endometriosis; 3) To evaluate the action of resveratrol on pain caused by peritoneal and ovarian endometriosis.