Expression of MMP-3 in human adenomyosis and the correlation between it and dysmenorrhea

Objective To study the expression of MMP-3 in human adenomyosis and to explore the correlation between it and dysmenorrhea.Methods Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of MMP-3 in 45 specimens of ectopic endometrium and 36 eutopic endometrium of adenomyosis and 28 specimens of normal endometrium.Results The expression of MMP-3 in ectopic endometrium of adenomyosis was significantly higher than that in eutopic endometritum of adenomyosis and normal endometrium (P0.05). There was no significant difference between the expression of MMP-3 in entopic proliferative endometrium of adenomyosis and that in eutopic secretory one (P0.05). There was significant correlation between the expression of MMP-3 in ectopic endometrium of adenomyosis and dysmenorrhea(r=0.557,P0.05).Conclusion The abnormal expression of MMP-3 might be correlated with pathogenesis of human adenomyosis and might be related to dysmenorrhea.