Abstract:
Endometriosis is an estrogen-responsive disease defined as the presence of endometrial glands
and stroma outside the uterine cavity, predominantly but not exclusively in the pelvic
compartment. Its main clinical features comprise chronic pelvic pain, dyspareunia and infertility.
A disintegrin and metalloproteinases (ADAMs) are a family of membrane anchored cell surface
glycoproteins that are responsible for proteolysis, cell adhesion and metastasis of tumor cells. In
this study, we investigated localization of ADAM12 in the eutopic and ectopic endometrium (n
= 136) using immunohistochemistry. We also analyzed ADAM12 levels in serum (n = 293) and
endocervical mucus (n = 79) of women with and without endometriosis using ELISA. A
preferential localization of ADAM12 in the glandular and the luminal epithelial cells in the
eutopic endometrium with and without endometriosis as well as in ectopic endometrium was
observed. Additionally, ADAM12 was found to localize in the endothelial cells of blood vessels
and smooth muscle cells of the myometrial layer of eutopic endometrium. Localization of
ADAM12 showed no differences in eutopic endometrium of controls compared to those with
endometriosis. Similarly, serum and endocervical mucus ADAM12 levels were not different
between women with and those without endometriosis, although endocervical mucus ADAM12
levels were significantly lower than serum levels in paired samples. Collectively, our results show
that localization of ADAM12 is highly stable in eutopic and ectopic endometrium without any
loss of the epithelial phenotype and therefore is unlikely to contribute to the pathogenesis of
endometriosis.
