{"paper_id":"0ee7849b-e536-4108-acfd-172726fd4544","body_text":"Expression of Annexin-1 in patients with endometriosis\n- Chun-yan LI\n- Jing-he LANG\n- Hai-yuan LIU\n- Hui-mei ZHOU\nBackground\nAnnexin-1 was identified as an endometriosis-related protein by comparative proteomics in previous study. As an endogeneous anti-inflammatory mediator, Annexin-1 has been shown to regulate the immune response, cell proliferation and apoptosis. To investigate whether Annexin-1 is involved in the pathogenesis of endometriosis, we examined the expression of Annexin-1 in eutopic endometrium of women with or without endometriosis, and detected its expression in peritoneal fluids of those with endometriosis.\nMethods\nEutopic endometrium samples from twenty-five women with endometriosis and those from sixteen age-matched women without endometriosis were collected. Peritoneal fluids were obtained from ten patients with endometriosis. The expression of Annexin-1 protein in eutopic endometrium was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting, and mRNA detected by real-time PCR. Annexin-1 protein in the peritoneal fluids was detected by Western blotting.\nResults\nAnnexin-1 mRNA and protein were overexpressed in eutopic endometrium of endometriosis without significant differences between the proliferative and secretory phase. Immunohistochemistry showed that Annexin-1 protein was expressed mainly in endometrial glandular cells throughout the menstrual cycle. Annexin-1 protein was detected in the peritoneal fluids of all the ten patients with endometriosis.\nConclusions\nAnnexin-1 is overexpressed in eutopic endometrium and presents in the peritoneal fluids of patients with endometriosis, and may play a role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis.\nChin Med J 2008;121(10):927–931","source_license":"CC0","license_restricted":false}