Dear Colleagues, 

Endometriosis is a chronic condition in which the endometrium, which usually provides the inner facing of the uterus, sprouts in other areas, normally on the bowel, ovaries, bladder, rectum, and pelvic lining. Depending on the stage of the disease, it could lead to dysmenorrhea, infertility, and chronic recurring pelvic pain in billions of women of reproductive age. While the mechanisms underlying this process remain unclear, it is considered that immune dysfunction and the subsequent inability to effectively clear these fragments enables endometrial lesions to form in the peritoneal cavity. From a histological point of view, epithelial cells and stroma are capsuled in surrounding tissue and show extensive fibrosis and smooth muscle metaplasia. Lesions are characterized by invasiveness and mobility, fibroblast–myofibroblast differentiation, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition. Recent findings underline the importance of oxidative imbalance and inflammatory responses both at the lesion site and in the peritoneum and the related chronic pain state. These proinflammatory microenvironments include inflammatory cytokines/chemokines, prostaglandins, growth factors (GR), and reactive oxygen species (ROS). These mediators produce activation of sensory nerve and nociceptive pathways, and proposing inflammatory mechanisms may thus be critical in endometriosis-associated pain. This Special Issue will focus on the molecular mechanisms associated with endometriosis and on the substances that would be useful in the management of the disease.

Dr. Roberta Fusco
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• endometriosis
• molecular mechanisms
• therapeutic substances
• inflammatory
• pathology