FIGURE 5

Ganciclovir treatment induces a significant regression of endometrial implants expressing the TK gene in nude mice. Endometrial fragments were incubated with AdGFP (m.o.i. 500) and AdTK (m.o.i. 25) viral particles for 20 h. After washings, five fragments were injected subcutaneously into 16 ovariectomized nude mice supplemented with E2-releasing pellets. Eight mice received an ip injection of GCV (50 mg/kg/day) on each weekday for a 2-week period, starting 4 days after tissue transplantation. Mice in the control group (N = 8) received PBS injections. Each mouse was imaged in triplicate at days 1, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 15, 18, 20, and 22 posttransplantation, and lesion size was quantified. (A) Each symbol represents the mean of three measures for each animal at each time point. Bars indicate the mean surface of endometriotic implants for each group. Comparison of lesion size (in pixels) in treated versus untreated animals was performed by a nonparametric Mann–Whitney test. A significant difference between GCV- and PBS-treated groups was observed (P 0.05 at days 8, 15, 18, 20, and 22; P 0.005 at days 11 and 13). (B and C) The time at which each mouse had a lesion with (B) a 75% or (C) a 50% reduction from its initial size was used to generate survival curves (Kaplan–Meier analysis). A significant difference was observed between GCV- and PBS-treated groups (log rank test, P = 0.004 and P = 0.006 for B and C, respectively). These results are representative of two independent experiments.