Expression of progesterone receptor subtypes in ectopic endometrium of adenomyosis

Objective To investigate the expression of progesterone receptor subtypes in adenomyosis tissues and eutopic endometrium.Methods Immunohistochemical streptavidin-biotin peroxidase was applied to compare the expressions of progesterone receptor subtypes between ectopic lesions from 20 women with adenomyosis and normal endometria from 17 controls.Results The expression of progesterone receptor in eutopic endometrial stroma cells was lower than that of the control.Conclusion The lower expression of PR-A in eutopic endometrial stroma cells and lower expressions of PR subtypes in ectopic lesions may be involved in the pathogenesis, probably associated with progesterone resistane.