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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Contractility Measurements of Human Uterine Smooth Muscle to Aid Drug Development
Published on: January 26, 2018
Expression profile of several genes in human myometrium and uterine leiomyoma
Ted M Roth1, Christoph Klett, Bryan D Cowan
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women's Specialty Center of Central Maine Medical Center, Lewiston, Maine, USA.
Objective:
To screen several genes that are differentially expressed in uterine leiomyoma and matched unaffected myometrium by using microarray-based hybridization and real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses.
Design:
Screen by arrays for < or =2,400 known genes in leiomyoma and control myometrium.
Setting:
University clinical research laboratory.
Patient(S):
Four patients with leiomyoma scheduled for surgery during the proliferative phase.
Intervention(S):
Four paired samples of leiomyoma and adjacent myometrium were obtained from patients undergoing hysterectomy.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Fold-changes in expression of leiomyoma and matched myometrium (L/M).
Result(S):
A comparison of expression patterns revealed 73 genes significantly up- or down-regulated in each paired tissue sample, of which 30 genes showed increased expression (mean L/M of >2) and 43 showed decreased expression (mean L/M of <0.5) in leiomyoma compared with normal myometrium. When considering only growth factors, pleiotropin (PTN) was expressed 3.5-fold more in leiomyomas compared with in myometrium. No other growth factors were similarly affected. In addition, real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis correlated well with microarray data.
Conclusion(S):
Data obtained from the present study suggest that several genes are selectively overexpressed in leiomyomas compared with in myometrium. Increased expression of growth factor PTN may represent a promising target for therapy.
