Expression Of Beclin-1 MRNA And Protein In Ovarian Endometriosis

Background:Endometriosis is one of the common gynecological diseases, The incidence rate of endometriosis increases, but its pathogenesis is still unclear. It has become special focus to investigate its pathogenesis from the molecule level.Programmed cell death(PCD)is an essential and highly orchestrated process。Two major types of PCD have been distinguished:the caspase-mediated process of apoptosis(type 1 cell death)and the caspase-independent process involving autophagy (type 2 cell death). Autophagy is a vacuolar process of cytoplasmic degradation by lysosome. Autophagy has increased inhibition of tumor cell growth, in a variety of tumor cell lines in the low-level expression.Beclin-1, identified as a Bcl-2 interacting protein, is known to enhance autophagy, The human beclin-1 gene has been mapped to a region of chromosome 17q21 that is monoallelically deleted in up to 75.0% of ovarian cancers, 50.0%of breast cancers, and 40.0%of prostate cancers. Beclin-1 is a candidate tumor suppressor gene. It has played an important role in many disease. However, no study has previously shown the relation of Beclin-1 to ovarian endometriosis, This study investigated the expression of Beclin-1 in ovarian endometriosis and its association with clinical stage.Objective:The aim of this investigation is to study the expression of Beclin-1 in Ovarian Endometriosis and normal endometrium, and study the correlation between its expression. We collected tissue samples from 51 women with ovarian endometriosis (research group) and 15 healthy women undergoing surgery for benign indications (control group). Research group was divided into four stages according to the r-AFS(1985):Ⅰstage contained 12 patients,Ⅱstage contained 15 patients,Ⅲstage contained 11 patients,Ⅳstage contained 13 patients .Expression level of Beclin-1 was detected in ectopic endometrium samples and normal endometrium respectively,and their correlation was studied by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction,western blotting and immunohistochemistry analysis and methods. Immunohistochemical staining results were counted semiquantitively . The statistical analysis were performed with SPSS13.0 software.Results:Beclin-1 messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in ectopic endometrial tissues was lower obviously than that in the normal endometrium (P<0.05). Beclin-1 protein expression in ectopic endometrial tissues was also significantly lower compared with that of controls (P<0.05). Beclin-1 mRNA and protein expressions in ectopic endometrial tissues were demonstrated gradually decreasing as the severity of the r-AFS, Significant difference was observed among them(P<0.05).The positive Beclin-l expression demonstrated gradually decreasing as the severity of the lesion progressed from control group to research group. Significant difference was observed among them(P<0.05).Conclusion:The study revealed that Beclin-1 mRNA and protein expression were significantly decreased in ovarian endometriosis, Moreover, Beclin-1 was negatively correlated with the clinical stage(r-AFS,1985). The ability of autophagy in Ovarian Endometriosis was redused. Beclin-1 might relate to the pathogenesis and progression of endometriosis .Methods:...