Potential Effects of Soy Isoflavones and Broccoli Extract on Oxidative Stress, Autophagy, and Apoptosis Gene Markers in Endometriosis

Abstract

Background: Endometriosis is an idiopathic gynecological condition affecting women with pelvic pain and infertilityin reproductive ages. Due to preventive and therapeutic effects of soy isoflavones (SI) and broccoli extract (BE) ontumor angiogenesis, inflammation and oxidative stress and since endometriosis is accompanied by chronic inflammation,in this study, we aim to evaluate the potential role of these compounds on the pathological scores of endometriosisand also consider the expression level of the gene markers of autophagy, apoptosis, and oxidative stress in anendometriosis rat model.Materials and Methods: In the present experimental study, 45 mature female Sprague- Dawley rats weighing 220 ±20 g at the age of eight weeks with surgically induced endometriosis was divided into five groups and treated for sixweeks with normal saline (control group), BE, SI, BE+SI by oral gavage, and also Diphereline intramuscularly. Thehistopathological scores of the endometrial implants (0, 1, 2, 3: no, poorly, moderately and well-preserved epitheliallayers, respectively) and the mRNA expression level of Bcl-2, Bax, Caspase-3, Beclin-1, Lc3, and Sod within peritonealtissue were compared among the groups.Results: Pathologic scores of the implants in the Diphereline (1.2 ± 0.27) and BE+SI (1.2 ± 0.41) groups were declinedsignificantly in comparison with the control group (2.08 ± 0.44) (P≤0.001). In the endometriotic structures,the mRNA expression levels of our target genes were improved significantly (P≤0.01) in comparison with the controlgroup.Conclusion: The findings of the current study demonstrated that the simultaneous consumption of a certain amount ofbroccoli extract and SI can be considered as a promising therapeutic strategy for treatment of endometriosis.

Keywords

• endometriosis
• female
• gene expression
• natural products
• rats