• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2004

Objective: To investigate whether polymorphism of gene encoding COMT is associated with the risk of endometriosis in Korean women. Methods: We investigated 136 patients with histopathologically confirmed endometriosis rAFS stage III/IV and 251 control group women who were surgically proven to have no endometriosis. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of PCR products were done to determine each participant's COMT genotype. Results: The distribution according to NIaIII genetic polymorphisms of COMT were as follows. $COMT^{HH}$, $COMT^{HL}$, and $COMT^{LL}$ genotypes were 56.6% (77 women), 34.6% (47 women) and 8.8% (12 women) in the study group and 50.6% (127 women), 39.4% (99 women) and 10.0% (25 women) in the control group. There was no significant difference between the study group and the control group. Conclusion: The results suggest that COMT genetic polymorphism may not be associated with the development of endometriosis in Korean women.