13C NMR spectroscopic tracking of the glycolytic pathway in cultured endometriosis cells

Endometriosis is a disease that affects the female reproductive organs, in which tissue resembling that of the endometrium grows in lesions outside of the uterus. According to statistics, this ailment is estimated to affect more than 11% of or 6.5 million premenopausal American women and is often associated with issues in fertility. Currently, the main treatment for endometriosis is hormone therapy with birth control and the surgical removal of lesions laparoscopically. In order to analyze the effects of hormone therapy on the glucose metabolism of endometriosis lesion, in vitro 13C NMR spectroscopy was used to investigate the metabolic fate of 13C-labelled glucose in endometriosis cells in the presence or absence of hormones such as estradiol and progesterone. It was found that the main metabolite from glucose catabolism was lactate for all samples, but in much greater concentration with the hormones than the control. Additional metabolites such as alanine have the opposite effect.