Study on expression of CD44v6 and MMP7 in patients with endometriosis associated with r-AFs staging

Objective To study the expression and relativity of CD44v6 and MMP-7 in patients with endometriosis(EMs)and to explore the relationship between these two factors and r-AFs staging in EMs.Methods Streptavidin peroxidase conjugated method was used to detect the expression of CD44v6 and MMP-7 in ectopic endometria of 60 cases,eutopic endometria of 60 cases and normal endometria of 60 cases without endometriosis(control group).Patients in EMs group were intraoperatively differentiated with r-AFs staging.Results The expression of CD44v6 in ectopic endometrium group was higher than that in eutopic endometrium group and control group,their difference was statistically significant(P0.05);higher expression of CD44v6 was detected in control group in comparison with eutopic endometrium group,their difference was stistically significant(P0.05).In control group,MMP-7 showed weak expression.The expression of MMP-7 was obviously increased in either eutopic or ectopic endometria,with significant difference in comparison with that of tissue in control group(P0.05).Both CD44v6 and MMP-7 in stages III~IV were higher than those in stages I~II(P0.05).However,both in eutopic endometria showed no difference in various r-AFs stages(P0.05).There was significant relativity between expression of CD44v6 and MMP-7 in ectopic endometria(r= 0.726,P0.05),furthermore it was associated with r-AFs staging in endometriosis(r=0.615,P0.05).Conclusion The high expression of CD44v6 and MMP-7 in ectopic endometria may be an important factor in development of endometriosis and involvement of invasion of endometriosis.