Study On The Relationship Between FSH, FSHR And Ovarian Epithelial Tumor

【Objective】The mortality of the ovarian malignant tumor is highest of all the malignant tumor of women.85%～90% of ovarian cancers are derived from the ovarian epithelial cells. Its etiology is still uncertain. In recent years, the scholars presumed that the origin and development of the ovarian epithelial cancer was related to Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). The ovarian epithelial cancer usually occurs during the age span of 40~60, and this phenomenon is conformed with high risk of FSH exposure. In this research we have detected the FSH levels in the serum and the FSHR levels in the tissue of the ovarian epithelial tumor patients, then discussed the mechanisms and function of FSH during the development of the ovarian epithelial cancer.【Material and Method】70 postmenopausal inpatients were collected from the Gynecology and Obstetrics department of the second clinical hospital of Jilin University, which were divided into 4 groups: 1. The normal group (n=15); 2. The benign group (n=20); 3.The borderline group (n=13); 4.The malignant group (n=22). The normal group included the patients whose ovarian were removed for benign diseases, and were certified by pathological section as normal ovarian tissue. The serum was obtained before operation and the tissue was obtained during the operation. The FSH levels in serum were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the expression of the FSHR in the tissue was detected by immunohistochemistry(LSAB). The results were analyzed by use of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), rank sum test, Spear- man rank correlation and processed by spss11.5【Results】1. The serum levels of FSH gradually elevated from benign group, borderline group to malignant group. The levels of FSH in the last two group were all higher than the normal group(p<0.01); 2. The expression degree of FSHR was highest in the borderline group and lowest in the normal group(p<0.05); 3. The FSH and FSHR both degraded as the differentiation of the cancer degraded(p<0.05); 4. There was positive correlation between FSH and FSHR in the normal, benign and borderline group (p<0.01), but there was no correlation between FSH and FSHR in the malignant group (p>0.05).【Conclusions】1.FSH combined with FSHR do play important role in the origin and development of the ovarian epithelial cancer. 2.FSH can influence the differentiation of the ovarian cancer cell.3.The function of FSH does not only depend on FSHR but also depend on other extra-receptor pathways in the later stage of the development of the tumor.