Expression and significance of vascular endothelial growth factor and angiogenesis in adenomyosis

Objective To investigate the expression of VEGF and MVD in different parts of adenomyosis. To discuss the roles of angiogenesis in the pathophysiology of uterine adenomyosis.Methods The study included 56 patients with histologically proved adenomyosis and 26 patients with normal uterus. Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect expression of VEGF in endometrium and myometrium of uterus. Immunohistochemical staining was also used to accounted the microvessel density in different parts of uterus by detect factor Ⅷ related antigen.Results The positive expression rate of VEGF in eutopic endometrium and normal endometrium of uterus were 52.5% and 46.2%,there were no noticeable difference (P0.05). Respectively,they were significantly lower than ectopic endometrium (75%,P0.05). The positive expression rates of VEGF in the myometrium around the actopic lesions was significantly higher than that of the normal myometrium (69.6% vs 38.5%,P0.05). MVD was significantly correlated with expression of VEGF in ectopic endometrium and the myometrium around the actopic lesions(P0.01).Conclusion The overexpression of VEGF significantly correlated with MVD. So they have close relationship with adenomyotic angiogenesis which may be involved in the progression of adenomyosis.