Uterine fibroids or uterine leiomyomas are the most common benign tumors of the uterus among women of fertile age, while the etiology is still incompletely elucidated. The occurrence and development of the fibromatosis may be related to certain risk factors and genic mechanisms, although the exact causes are not yet fully known. The development of uterine fibroids is correlated not only with the metabolism and with the level of female sexual hormones, estrogen, and progesterone, but also with the number of these hormone receptors expressed on the surface of the myometrium. Proliferative effects of estrogen and progesterone may be exercised through proinflammatory factors (TNF alpha), growth factors (IGF1, IGF2, TGFbeta3 and betaFGF) or inhibitors of apoptosis (p53 suppression). A number of predisposing factors such as ethnicity - black skin, early menarche, nulliparity, caffeine and alcohol, chronic inflammation, obesity, were also identified. Approximately 40% of the uterine fibroids are caused by the same cytogenetic alterations found in the other tumor types such as kidney, lung, or leiomyosarcoma. As part of a system dysfunction, uterine fibromatosis was connected to other disorders such as AHT (arterial hypertension), endometrium adenocarcinoma, adenomyosis, endometriosis, diabetes mellitus, breast tumors, seemingly with a common causality. The action and effect of some hormonal imbalances over the various organs depend on the histological and local expression particularities of the various receptors, being the cause for many disorders, among which the uterine fibromatosis, coexisting or accompanying the later. This article examines and summarizes the latest data refreshed literature etiopathogenesis offering indicators of uterine fibroids.
Keywords: benign tumorsn; uterine fibroids; uterine fibromatosis; uterine leiomyomas.