Correlations of leukemia inhibitory factor and macrophage migration inhibitory factor with endometrial carcinoma

To investigate the correlations of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) with endometrial carcinoma.

The study included 113 endometrial specimens from the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, collected from May 2006 to October 2008, classified into normal endometrium, simple hyperplasia, complex hyperplasia, atypical hyperplasia, and endometrial carcinoma. The LIF and MIF expression of all 113 specimens was detected with immunohistochemistrical (IHC) method.

The MIF expression in hyperplastic endometrium and endometrial carcinoma increased significantly as compared with that in normal endometrium (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively), and its expression in endometrial carcinoma was also remarkably higher than that in hyperplastic endometrium (p < 0.001). The expressions of LIF in atypical hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma were also significantly higher than that in the normal endometrium (p < 0.05), but it is not obviously higher in simple hyperplasia and complex hyperplasia than in the normal endometrium (p > 0.05). Furthermore, the expression of LIF showed no statistical difference between hyperplastic endometrium and endometrial carcinoma.

It could be speculated that MIF may be correlated with the occurrence of endometrial carcinoma. However, whether LIF also has a correlation with the occurrence of endometrial carcinoma still cannot be presumed.