New joint work by the groups from Tartu, Estonia and Münster, Germany has now been published by the International Journal of Molecular Sciences as part of a special issue devoted to endometriosis. Rekker et al. demonstrate the importance of cell-type-specific analysis of miRNA expression and function in the context of endometriomas. In the study lead by the Competence Center on Health Technologies in Tartu, Estonia, combined flow cytometry-based cell sorting of endometriotic stroma cells and high-throughput sequencing to determine miRNA alterations in endometriotic stroma. Functional analysis of selected miRNAs demonstrated that the small noncoding RNAs miR-139-5p and miR-375 may be involved in the pathogenesis of endometriosis by regulating important transcription factors (HOXA9 and HOXA10) and the vasoactive peptide endothelin-1 (EDN1/ET1).

The paper is freely available under the following link: www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/19/12/3789/pdf