Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
3964140 Journal of Reproductive Immunology 2006 12 Pages PDF
Abstract

Endometriosis is defined as the presence of endometrial glands and stroma outside the uterus. Apoptosis, a physiological process by which multicellular organisms eliminate superfluous cells, is altered in tumor tissue. Here we studied the expression of the apoptosis-related proteins p53, bcl-2, bax, p21 and fas in proliferative (n = 9) and secretory (n = 9) endometrium, and in peritoneal (n = 11), ovarian (n = 20) and colorectal (n = 20) endometriosis, by qualitative and semi-quantitative immunohistochemical methods using the percentage of positive cells and HSCORE analysis.In endometrium, p53, p21 and fas expression was low, whereas bax and bcl-2 expression was elevated. Using HSCORE analysis, only bcl-2 expression varied during the menstrual cycle (48.9 ± 34.2% in the proliferative phase, 11.5 ± 24.7% in the secretory phase, p = 0.01).Using HSCORE analysis, p53 expression was higher in ovarian endometriosis than in peritoneal (p < 0.0001) and colorectal endometriosis (p = 0.03). P21 expression was higher in ovarian endometriosis than in peritoneal (p = 0.01) and colorectal endometriosis (p = 0.01). Bcl-2 expression was lower in ovarian endometriosis than in peritoneal (p = 0.0002) and colorectal endometriosis (p < 0.0001). Fas expression was higher in peritoneal endometriosis than in ovarian (p = 0.02) and colorectal endometriosis (p = 0.008).In conclusion, these results confirm the involvement of apoptosis in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. Moreover, expression of apoptosis-related proteins varies according to the location of endometriosis suggesting the involvement of different apoptotic pathways.

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