Increased expression of human luteinizing hormone/human chorionic gonadotropin receptor mRNA in human endometrial...

Fifty randomly selected endometrial tissue samples were used in this study to determine the existence of LH/hCG receptor. Of these, 6 were matched samples of cancerous and surrounding morphologically normal tissues from the same individuals. Conventional RT-PCR, nested RT-PCR, and relative real-time PCR (TaqMan) methods were used to measure the gene expression on the RNA levels. The results show, (1) Real-time PCR can detect LH/hCG receptor expression in all the RNA samples analyzed when conventional RT-PCR only demonstrates the expression of LH/hCG receptor in 17% of the tested samples. (2) Absolute quantitation of LH/hCG receptor by real-time PCR shows higher expression in cancer tissue. This finding was confirmed by the six matched samples. It suggests that LH/hCG receptor gene expresses in endometrium at very low levels and real-time PCR is the best method to detect the expression. Quantitative real-time PCR also reveals increased expressions of LH/hCG receptor in endometrial cancerous tissues compared with surrounding microscopically normal tissues.