Changes of soluble fas and soluble fas ligand in serum and peritoneal fluid of infertile patients with endometriosis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between levels of soluble Fas (sFas) and soluble Fas ligand (sFasL) in serum and peritoneal fluid of endometriosis-associated infertility. METHODS: The soluble Fas ligand and soluble Fas levels in serum and peritoneal fluid of 20 infertile patients with endometriosis were assessed with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and were compared with 14 infertile patients due to chronic pelvic infectious disease and 16 fertile controls. RESULTS: The sFasL levels were significantly higher in infertile patients with endometriosis (175.09 +/- 80.55 pg/mL in serum and 284.50 +/- 152.38 pg/mL in peritoneal fluid) than those of infertile controls (88.47 +/- 43.55 pg/mL in serum and 17.30 +/- 9.62 pg/mL in peritoneal fluid) and fertile controls (16.13 +/- 11.75 pg/mL in serum and 8.84 +/- 2.31 pg/mL in peritoneal fluid). In contrast, as for the sFas levels, infertile patients with endometriosis (828.60 +/- 429.65 pg/mL in serum and 349.61 +/- 288.89 pg/mL in peritoneal fluid) did not show any significant difference compared with those in infertile patients resulting from pelvic infectious disease (868.75 +/- 570.48 pg/mL in serum and 181.76 +/- 157.78 pg/mL in peritoneal fluid) and fertile control (822.26 +/- 129.12 pg/mL in serum and 318.42 +/- 145.16 pg/mL in peritoneal fluid). CONCLUSIONS: Based upon these results, high level of sFasL in serum and peritoneal fluid and thus apoptosis mediated by it may be implicated in the mechanism involved in endometriosis-related infertility.