Effects of metformin on endometrial cell in PCOS patients

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25670694
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Obstetrics and gynecology
• Research Institution: Chiba University
• Principal Investigator: SHOZU Makio 千葉大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (30226302)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 産婦人科学 / 生殖医学 / メトホルミン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Metformin (met) has been used for ovulation induction. The conception rate of met is not, however, as high as would be expected from its higher ovulation rate. We tested the hypothesis that met inhibits cell proliferation and and the signal pathways for implantation, thus inhibiting embryo implantation. We examined the met actions on EME6E7TER-ERαcells that were derived from normal endometrial (EM) cells. Met did not affect the cell proliferation, whereas it inhibited proliferation and signals in EM cancer cells. Next we examined the effect of met in vivo. Tissue specimens were obtained from EM cancer patients and patients with PCOS who took met. Non-cancerous EM cells showed no change after met intake, whereas EM cancer cells showed a decreased proliferation and related signals. Our results suggest that EM cells are less sensitive to the suppressive action of met and, thus the inhibition of the proliferation signal is not the mechanism of the relatively low conception rate of met.

Free Research Field

生殖内分泌