Expression of interleukin-10 in patients with adenomyosis

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of interleukin-10 (IL-10) in adenomyosis. DESIGN: Laboratory study using human tissue. SETTING: University hospital. PATIENT(S): Thirty-four patients with adenomyosis and 30 women without adenomyosis who underwent hysterectomy for nonendometrial pathology. INTERVENTION(S): Tissue sections were immunostained with murine monoclonal antihuman IL-10 antibodies. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Microscopic evaluation to assess the presence and localization of IL-10 throughout the menstrual cycle in both eutopic endometrial and adenomyotic tissues of women with adenomyosis and compare it with IL-10 expression in the normal endometrium. RESULT(S): In the eutopic and ectopic endometrium of women with adenomyosis, epithelial cells showed higher staining intensity than the normal controls. However, no significant differences were found in the epithelial IL-10 immunostaining H score values between the eutopic endometrium and adenomyosis foci. Nonetheless, we observed a cyclic variation in the eutopic epithelial IL-10 immunoreactivity throughout the menstrual cycle with higher H score values in the secretory phase than in the proliferative phase. CONCLUSION(S): These findings suggest that an abnormality of inflammatory response may be present in the eutopic and ectopic endometrium of women with adenomyosis and that IL-10 may contribute to the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of adenomyosis.