---

Aim and Background. Endometriosis is a common gynecological disorder that is poorly understood. It is characterized by the presence of uterine endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity and is mainly associated with severe pelvic pain and/or infertility. We hypothesized that viral infection endometrium (especially HPV) may increase the capacity for the invasiveness of basal layer especially along with retrograde menstruation in the intra abdominal or the myometrial region.

Material and Methods. In this study, 46 paraffin blocks of endometriosis and 50 paraffin blocks of normal endometrium as a control were selected. After extracting DNA, all samples were examined for the presence of beta globin gene and suitable samples searched for the presence of L1 HPV-Common by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Results. HPV was detected by PCR in 11 of 43 (58/25%) cases of endometriosis tissue samples and 7 of 43 (27/16%), endometrial samples. A total of 18 out of 86 samples (93/20) were positive by using general primers of HPV.

Conclusion. HPV infection in endometriosis lesions as well as control tissues supports the spread of the virus or HPV-infected endometrial cells via retrograde menstruation. Due to an association of HPV in carcinomas, we propose that persistent HPV infection of endometriosis lesions could contribute to malignant progression.

---

Aim and Background: XRCC1encods the protein involved in base excision repair (BER) system. Because of important role of XRCC1 gene, polymorphism in this gene could increase the risk of many neoplasms in human. We conducted a research project to find out the association between endometriosis with XRCC1polymorphism.
Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study 102 cases were enrolled. DNA was isolated from peripheral blood, and then genotyping of codon 399 of XRCC1 was carried using specific primers and RFLP method. Results: Data from102 cases in an endometriosis group (n=52) and a control group (n=50) were analyzed and led to the following.
results: the Arg399Gln polymorphism of XRCC1 gene was 76.9% in the endometriosis group compared with 28% in the control group (P=0.0001) with OR= 2.47 and 95% CI: 1.72–4.39 (for GG vs. GA+AA) using Fisher’s exact test. Allelic Frequency on the Endometriosis group was 57.69% for G and 42.31% for A allele these rates for the control group were 86% and 14% for G and A alleles respectively (P=0.0001).
Conclusion: we came to the conclusion that arginine to glutamine polymorphism of XRCC1 gene codon 399 is associated with an increase in the risk of endometriosis and obtained odd’s ratio indicates that people with this polymorphism have 2.47 times the risk of developing endometriosis compared to people without polymorphism

---

Aim and Background: Endometriosis is one of the major causes of decreased fertility in mares which is caused by various infectious agents, the most common of which is Escherichia coli. The aim of this study was to determine the virulence factors pattern in Escherichia coli isolated from endometriosis cases in mares.
Materials and Methods: In this study, 136 mares with a history of infertility and pregnancy problems were studied in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. After sampling by uterine siphoning and microbial culture of the samples, molecular confirmation of the isolated Escherichia coli strains and the presence of the most common virulence factors in these strains were used by PCR method.
Results: From 136 studied samples, 22 (16.17%) were infected with Escherichia coli. It was recognized that fimH (90.9%), afa/draBC and cnf1 (72.7%) had the highest while papGIII (27.2%), and traT (18.8%) had the lowest distributions of virulence genes in these strains.
Conclusions: The results of this study showed that one of the dominant bacteria causing endometriosis in Escherichia coli material is the presence of a variety of virulence factors in Escherichia coli strains indicating direct involvement of these agents in bacterial pathogenicity.