Evaluation of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 levels in peripheral blood of infertile women with endometriosis.
OBJECTIVE
To test whether serum monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) chemokine levels correlate with endometriosis in infertile women.


METHODS
A group of women with endometriosis (n = 18, infertile) was compared with patients with uterine leiomyoma (n = 16, fertile), unexplained infertility (n = 5, infertile), and healthy women (n = 16, fertile). MCP-1 expression levels were evaluated by ELISA assay. The data obtained were statistically analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test. P-Values <0.05 were considered as significant.


RESULTS
MCP-1 concentrations (median; range of values) in serum were as follows: women with endometriosis (221; 101-635 pg/ml), women with unexplained infertility (167, 114-234 pg/ml), women with uterine leiomyoma (137; 88-200 pg/ml), and healthy donors (123; 98-194 pg/ml). Significant differences were observed in the women with endometriosis compared with those with uterine leiomyoma (p = 0.02) and healthy donors (p = 0.002). Among the women with endometriosis, the level of significance in MCP-1 level at rAFS stages III-IV was higher than that at rAFS stages I-II compared with healthy donors and women with leiomyoma (p = 0.002 and p = 0.02, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
These data show that an increased level of MCP-1 can characterize infertile women with endometriosis. However, further studies are needed to be able to determine whether increased MCP-1 chemokine expression can be related to infertility or is a result of endometriosis progress.
Gmyrek
Grzegorz B
GB
Laboratory of Reproductive Immunology, Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, Rudolfa Weigla 12, Wroclaw, Poland. gregoire@hot.pl
Sozanski
Rafal
R
Jerzak
Malgorzata
M
Chrobak
Agnieszka
A
Wickiewicz
Dorota
D
Skupnik
Alicja
A
Sieradzka
Urszula
U
Fortuna
Wojciech
W
Gabrys
Marian
M
Chelmonska-Soyta
Anna
A
D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D018932:Chemokine CCL2 / Q000097:blood*; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000097:blood*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000097:blood*; D007889:Leiomyoma / Q000097:blood; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000097:blood
D015415:Biomarkers; C111835:CCL2 protein, human; D018932:Chemokine CCL2