Aberrant levels of Wnt/β-catenin pathway components in a rat model of endometriosis

• Rômulo Medina de Mattos ^[2] ; Paula Rodrigues Pereira ^[2] ; Eliane Gouvêa de Oliveira Barros ^[2] ; Julianna Henriques da Silva ^[2] ; Celia Yelimar Palmero ^[2] ; Nathália Meireles da Costa ^[1] ; Luis Felipe Ribeiro Pinto ^[1] ; Etel Rodrigues Pereira Gimba ^[1] ; Fábio Hecht ^[2] ; Luciana Bueno Ferreira ^[3] ; Daniel Escorsim Machado ^[4] ; Felipe Leite de Oliveira ^[2] ; Luiz Eurico Nasciutti ^[2]
  1. [1] National Cancer Institute

     National Cancer Institute

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

     Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

     Brasil

     
  3. [3] Universidade Do Porto

     Universidade Do Porto

     Santo Ildefonso, Portugal

     
  4. [4] State University of East Zone, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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• Localización: Histology and histopathology: cellular and molecular biology, ISSN-e 1699-5848, ISSN 0213-3911, Vol. 31, Nº. 8, 2016, págs. 933-942
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Endometriosis is a benign gynecological disease affecting approximately 10-15% of women of reproductive age and 25-50% of all infertile women. It is characterized by the presence of glands and/or endometrial stroma outside the uterine cavity. Angiogenesis is a crucial process for the development and maintenance of endometriotic lesions. The Wnt/β-catenin pathway is a major promoter of angiogenesis in both physiological and pathological conditions. In the present study, we evaluated the expression of molecules related to the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in a rat model of peritoneal endometriosis. mRNA analyses showed significantly increased expression of Wnt4 and Wnt7b and decreased expression of Gsk3beta and E-cadherin in endometriotic lesions. However, there were no differences in β-catenin and Fzd2 mRNA expression. In addition, we observed a significant increase of nuclear β-catenin in endometriotic lesions, a hallmark of Wnt/ β -catenin pathway activation. Stromal β-catenin staining was found in 45.4% of endometrial tissues and 77.8% of endometriotic lesions. β-catenin nuclear localization was found in 18.2% of the endometrial tissues and 33.3% of endometriotic lesions. Finally, the expression of galectin-3, a regulator of this pathway, was increased in endometriosis. In summary, this pattern of Wnt/β-catenin components expression suggests an increased activity of this pathway in endometriosis.