Expression Causes the Dysregulated Expression of CXC Chemokines in Endometriotic Stromal Cells: A Possible Mechanism for the Altered Immunological Functions

To evaluate the involvement of chemokines in the pathogen-esis of endometriosis, we investigated the expression of CXC chemokines in cultured ovarian endometriotic cyst stromal cells (ECSC), endometrial stromal cells with endometriosis (ESCwE), and normal endometrial stromal cells (NESC). Us-ing ELISA, TNF- significantly enhanced the production of IL-8, growth-related oncogene , and epithelial neutrophil-activating peptide-78 in all cases of ECSC (n 10), ESCwE (n 6), and, NESC (n 10). IL-1 did not affect the production of these chemokines in eight of 10 cases of ECSC. In contrast, IL-1 significantly enhanced the expression of these chemo-kines in all cases of ESCwE (n 6) and NESC (n 10). Western blot analysis revealed down-regulation of expression of IL-1 receptor type 1 (IL-1-R1) in all cases of ECSC with low re-sponse to IL-1 (n 8). In contrast, significant IL-1-R1 ex-