Endometriosis Knowledgebase: a gene-based resource on endometriosis

AbstractEndometriosis is a complex, benign, estrogen-dependent gynecological disorder with an incidence of ~10% women in reproductive age. The implantation and growth of endometrial cells outside the uterus leads to the development of endometriosis. Endometriosis is also associated with comorbid conditions like cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases. The absence of non-invasive diagnostic markers, delayed diagnosis, high risk of recurrence of the disease on surgical removal of the tissue and absence of a definitive cure for endometriosis makes it imperative to gain insights into the complex etiology of endometriosis. A plethora of genes identified from blood and endometrial biopsies, involved in different pathways like steroid metabolism, angiogenesis, inflammation, etc. have been associated with endometriosis. However, the exact mechanism and genetic etiology of endometriosis still remain unclear. The polygenic nature of the disease, incongruent phenotypic manifestations in different ethnic populations and information scattered in literature makes it difficult to delineate the sub-network of genes that will aid in disease diagnosis and effective treatment. Endometriosis Knowledgebase is a manually curated database with information on genes associated with endometriosis. It holds information on 831 genes, their associated polymorphisms, gene ontologys, pathways and diseases. Genes in the database are enriched in pathways important for cell signaling, immune regulation and rep...
Source: Database : The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation - Category: Databases & Libraries Source Type: research