The expressions of Galectin-3 and β-catenin and their correlation studies in endometriosis

Objective To investigate the expressions and mutual relationship of Galectin-3 and β-catenin in endome-triosis(EM). Methods Immunohistochemistry was used to detect expression levels of Galectin-3 and β-catenin and theirmutual relationship in expression was also examined. Samples were collected from ectopic endometrium of patients with en-dometriosis(ectopic endometrium group, n=34), eutopic endometrium of patients with endometriosis(eutopic endometriumgroup, n=34) and normal endometrium from people without endometriosis(control group, n=30). Results The expressionsof Galectin-3 were seen in 88.2%, 85.3%, 50.0% of cases in ectopic endometrium group, eutopic endometrium group andcontrol group respectively. On the other hand, the expression of β-catenin were seen in 55.9%, 52.9%, 26.7% of cases in ecto-pic endometrium group, eutopic endometrium group and control group respectively. In EMs patients, the expression of Galec-tin-3 and β-catenin were significantly higher in ectopic endometrium and eutopic endometrium than those in normal endome-trium group(P0.05). Expression of Galectin-3 was positive correlated with expression of β-catenin(rs=0.512, 0.428, P0.01). Conclusion Galectin-3 and β-catenin may play important roles synergistically in the pathogenesis of endometriosis.