Dynamic thiol/disulphide homeostasis in patients with Uterine Myoma

The aim of this study is to measure and compare the dynamic thiol and disulphide homeostasis between patients with Uterine Myoma (UM) and healthy subjects.

A total of 54 patients with UM who were diagnosed by transvaginal ultrasonography and 37 age- and body mass index-matched healthy individuals were included in this study. Thiol/disulphide homeostasis was measured by a novel automatic spectrophotometric method.

The mean serum native thiol, disulphide, and thiol levels were statistically lower in UM group than those in the control group [(284.66±59.41μmol/L vs. 320.98±56.17μmol/L, P<0.0001), (17.27±5.59μmol/L vs. 22.38±6.93μmol/L, P<0.0001) and (319.21±61.69 vs. 365.76±61.46μmol/L, P<0.0001), respectively]. There were no statistically significant differences in ratios of the disulphide/native thiol, native thiol/total thiol, and disulphide/total thiol among patients with UM versus healthy control group (P=0.096, 0.092, 0.092, respectively).

It was found that the native thiol, total thiol, and disulphide levels in patients with UM decreased while the ratio of native thiol/disulphide remained unchanged.It is necessary to investigate whether these findings have a role in the etiology and clinical course of the UM.