Preliminary Study Of E-cadherin And Snail Expressed In Adenomyosis And Its Significance

Objective:This study was designed to investigate the expression of cell adhesion moleculeE-cadherin(E-cad) and transcription inhibitory factor Snail in the patients with adenomyosisand to explore the correlation between the expressions of the two factors.In this study, weprovide a preliminary basis for the further study of the patheogenesis and development ofadenomyosis.Methods:We select40cases of patients with adenomyosis and32cases of patients withhysteromyoma who have been undergone panhysterectomy in the department of Obstetricsand Gynecology of Tongji Hospital during the period of2010.9and2011.6, as our subjects.Immunohistochemistry SABC method was employed to detect the expression of E-cadherinand Snail in the specimens of ectopic endometria and eutopic endometria ofadenomyosis(n=40), including20cases with proliferative phase of endometria and20cases with secretory phase of endometria, and32specimens of normal endometria(n=32),including16cases with proliferative phase of endometria and16cases with secretory phaseof endometria.Results: 1、Expression of E-cadherinE-cadherin was location in the cytomembrane and (or) cytoplast of glandular cells ofendometria. The expression of E-cadherin in ectopic endometria of adenomyosis weresignificantly lower than those of eutopic endometria and normal endometria(P<0.05). Andthe average levels of E-cadherin in eutopic endometria were lower than that of normalendometria(P<0.05).2、Expression of SnailSnail was location in the nucleus of glandular cells of endometria. The expression ofSnail in ectopic endometria of adenomyosis were significantly higher than those of eutopicendometria and normal endometrial(P<0.05).However, the differentiation of Snailexpression between eutopic endometria and normal endometria was statisticallyinsignificant (P>0.05).3、Expression of E-cadherin and Snail in the same endometria of differentmenstrual cycleIn the control group, the expression of E-cadherin was higher in the secretory phase ofendometria than proliferative phase. But the differentiation was statistically insignificant(P>0.05).In the case group, the expression of E-cadherin was higher in the secretory phase ofendometria than proliferative phase. And the difference between them was significant(P<0.05).In the case group and the control group, Snail was higher expressed in the secretoryphase of endometria than proliferative phase. However, the difference was insignificant(P>0.05).4、The correlation between E-cadherin and SnailIn ectopic endometria of patients with adenomyosis, the expression of E-cadherin isgradually decreased and the expression of Snail is gradually increased, there has negativecorrelation between them. But there was no correlation between the expression ofE-cadherin and Snail in eutopic endometria of adenomyosis and normal endometria of thecontrol group.Conclusions:In patients with adenomyosis, the expression of E-cadherin and Snail changes fromectopic endometria to normal endometria which may play an important role in thepatheogenesis and development of adenomyosis. Snail is negative related with E-cadherin,which shows that one of aetiological agent of adenomyosis may be that Snail’s highexpression inhibits the expression of E-cadherin, and the adhesive force betweenendometrial cells declines, which makes cells depolymerized, therefore it become very easyfor cells to escape from normal location and invade neighboring surrounding places. Theresults of this study may provide a preliminary basis for the further study of thepatheogenesis and development of adenomyosis, and some new enlightenment for thenon-surgical treatment of adenomyosis.