Lysosomal evaluation of endometrioma capsule epithelium and endometrium of patients with or without endometriosis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the number of lysosomes in glandular epithelia of the endometrioma capsule and endometrium from patients with or without endometriosis using a histochemical method (acidic phosphate determination) under light microscopy. METHOD: We studied 31 selected patients with similar clinical features, except for the occurrence of menorrhagia enhanced in patients with endometriosis. All patients were submitted to video laparoscopic procedures and endometrial biopsies through hysteroscopy during the secretory phase. After surgery, the patients were divided into two groups for hysteroscopic data: GI--without endometriosis (control, n = 16) and GII--with endometriosis (n = 15). In GII, the lysosomes of the endometrioma were also counted (GIIa). RESULTS: The GI sample was comprised only of endometrial biopsies. We found that the number of lysosomes in the topic endometrial tissue of patients with endometriosis was significantly larger than the number in endometrioma. Also, there were more lysosomes in the endometrium of patients with endometriosis than in endometrioma-bearing patients. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that variations in the number of lysosomes may underlie the pathogenesis of endometriosis.