Expression of MMP-2,-9 in endometrium of patients with anovulatory dysfunctional uterine bleeding and its significance

Objective To investigate the expression of MMP-2,-9 in endometrium of patients with anovulatory dysfunctional uterine bleeding(DUB)and its significance in the pathogenesis.Methods Immunohistochemistry was used to study the expression of MMP-2,-9 in the endometrium from 60 cases of anovulatory DUB and 20 cases of normal proliferative phase.Results The positive expression rate of MMP-2 was 55%(11/20),80%(16/20),95%(20/21),95%(18/19)in the endometrium of the normal proliferative phase,and the proliferative phase,simple and complex hyperplasia of anovulatory DUB respectively.Compared with the normal proliferative phase,the expression of MMP-2 in the stromal cells was significantly increased in the simple and complex hyperplastic endometrium(χ2=8.53,8.07,P0.01).The positive expression rate of MMP-9 was 25%(5/20),60%(12/20),81%(17/21),84%(16/19)in the endometrium of the normal proliferative phase and the proliferative phase,simple and complex hyperplasia of anovulatory DUB,respectively.The expression of MMP-9 in the stromal cells was significantly increased in the endometrium from patients with anovulatory DUB(χ2=5.01,12.9,13.75,P0.05 or P0.01).Conclusion MMP-2,-9 are upregulated in endometrium of patients with anovulatory DUB.It indicates that increased MMPs expression may trigger irregular endometrial bleeding.