Mosele, Stefania
[UCL]
Stratopoulou, Christina Anna
[UCL]
Camboni, Alessandra
[UCL]
Donnez, Jacques
[UCL]
Dolmans, Marie-Madeleine
[UCL]
Research question Do platelets aggregate in adenomyotic lesions and participate in adenomyosis (AD) pathogenesis and related fibrosis? Design Eutopic and ectopic endometrium from 18 patients with AD and endometrium from 23 healthy controls were collected. Immunohistochemical analyses of platelet marker CD41, transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were performed to investigate aggregation and activation of platelets in the stroma. Picrosirius staining was carried out to evaluate the extent of fibrotic tissue. Results Stroma in the control group showed higher CD41 staining levels than ectopic stroma from patients with AD (p<0.001). In subjects with AD, eutopic stroma expressed more extensive CD41 staining than ectopic stroma (p<0.0001). Stroma in the control group exhibited higher TGF-β1 expression than eutopic and ectopic stroma from AD patients (p<0.001 and p<0.0001). Stroma in the control group also expressed higher VEGF levels than ectopic stroma from subjects with AD (p<0.001). In patients with AD, eutopic stroma showed higher VEGF expression than ectopic stroma (p<0.05). Stroma in ectopic endometrium from AD patients displayed greater picrosirius staining compared to both eutopic stroma from AD patients and stroma in the control group (p<0.0001). Conclusion Our results did not detect a primary role for platelet activation or aggregation in the pathophysiological process of AD. We found higher rates of collagen fibers in adenomyotic lesions, likely to be related to a TGF-β1-independant pathway. Collagen fiber deposition was more extensive in adenomyotic lesions, consistent with fibrosis.
Bibliographic reference |
Mosele, Stefania ; Stratopoulou, Christina Anna ; Camboni, Alessandra ; Donnez, Jacques ; Dolmans, Marie-Madeleine. investigation of the role of platelets in the aetiopathogenesis of adenomyosis. In: Reproductive BioMedicine Online, (2021) |
Permanent URL |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/245490 |