Endometriosis – Our company’s research activities are focused not only on tumors, but also on non-tumor diseases associated with hypoxia, where the CA IX protein is present. Endometriosis is one of these diseases. It is a chronic estrogen-dependent and often very painful disease that significantly affects a woman’s quality of life. Endometrial tissue and endometriosis exhibit many of the characteristic features associated with cancer, where the microenvironment plays a key role. One of the basic features of the endometriosis microenvironment is hypoxia, which arises as a result of an imbalance between the supply and consumption of oxygen in the growing endometriotic tissue. We have also proven the presence of hypoxia and the CA IX protein in endometriosis tissue.
Cardiovascular diseases – Abdominal aortic aneurysm disease is a life-threatening, chronic degenerative condition, predominantly of the infrarenal segment of the abdominal aorta. A growing body of evidence links hypoxia and HIF-1α expression/activity to abdominal aortic aneurysm disease development/rupture. We prove the presence of hypoxia-related proteins CA IX and HIF-1α in abdominal aortic aneurysms tissues and elevated soluble CA IX concentrations in abdominal aortic aneurysms patient plasma specimens. Our results open a new window to understand and to clarify the role of CA IX in diseases associated with decreased oxygen levels in the cellular microenvironment. CA IX and the mechanisms responsible for its increase could become potential targets of future therapeutic interventions in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm.
