Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Jun;70(1-2):151-62.
doi: 10.1016/j.jri.2005.11.003. Epub 2005 Dec 27.

Expression of apoptosis-related proteins in peritoneal, ovarian and colorectal endometriosis

Charlotte Dufournet  1 , Catherine Uzan, Raffaèle Fauvet, Annie Cortez, Jean-Pierre Siffroi, Emile Daraï
Affiliations

Expression of apoptosis-related proteins in peritoneal, ovarian and colorectal endometriosis

Charlotte Dufournet et al. J Reprod Immunol. 2006 Jun.

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.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources