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Comparative immunohistochemical studies of endometriosis lesions and endometriotic cysts
1Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Science, The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA. farr.nezhat@mssm.edu
Objective:
To compare immunohistochemical staining patterns in noncystic and cystic endometriosis lesions.
Design:
Experimental.
Setting:
Archived pathology material in an academic research environment.
Patient(S):
Endometriosis tissues from the pathology archives including slide tissue sections and blocks.
Intervention(S):
None; this was a retrospective study.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Immunohistochemical staining of the tissues was performed using anti-bcl-2, anti-p53, anti-matrix metalloproteinase IX, and anti-collagen VI antibodies. Staining was qualitatively assessed in terms of extent and intensity.
Result(S):
p53 showed no staining in both groups. Anti-bcl-2 stained 100% (30/30) of endometriosis lesions compared with only 23% (7/30) of endometriotic cysts (P<.0001), and anti-matrix metalloproteinase IX stained 85% (23/27) of endometriosis lesions and only 39% (14/36) of endometriotic cysts (P=.0003). Anti-collagen VI, however, stained only 6% (2/35) of endometriosis lesions and 75% (21/28) of endometriotic cysts (P<.0001).
Conclusion(S):
Compared with endometriosis lesions, endometriotic cysts display different expression of proteins with relative overexpression of collagen VI and underexpression of bcl-2 and metalloproteinase IX. This report is the first comparative immunohistochemical study showing these differences.