Study of Intercellular adhension molecule-l in immunological pathogenesis of endometriosis

Objective To investigate the expression of ICAM-1 in endometriosis and then discuss its roles in the pathogenesis of endometriosis.Methods Immunohistochemistry was used to determine the expression of ICAM-1 in ectopic and eutopic edometrium from patients with EM and those from controls.Results The significantly increased expression of ICAM-1 was observed in ectopic endometrium compared with entopic and normal endometrium;there was no statistically significant difference of the expression of ICAM-1 between eutopic and normal endometriu;ICAM-1 expression showed a cyclic variation in eutopic endometrium,the staining was more abundant in the proliferative samples than in the secretory ones;Although higher intensity staining was observed in the proliferative samples of normal endometrium compared with those in the secretory ones,there showed no significant difference(P0.05).Conclusions The overexpression of ICAM-1 in the patients with endometriosis may be associated with an immunologic abnormalities in peritoneal microenviroment.Thus,it may contribute to the progression of endometriosis.