1 Departments of Gynaecology and 2 Pathology, Hospital Erasme, Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808, Route de Lennik, 1070 Brussels, Belgium
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Abstract |
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Key words: adenomyosis/endometriosis/rectovaginal endometriotic nodule/smooth muscle metaplasia
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Introduction |
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Materials and methods |
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Endometriotic lesions
Four different endometriotic lesions were studied: peritoneal endometriosis (n = 21), ovarian endometriomas (n = 13), uterosacral endometriotic nodules (n = 8) and rectovaginal septum endometriotic nodules (n = 12).
Peritoneal endometriosis
Fourteen lesions were typical black implants and seven were red lesions. The surface areas of the biopsies were between 0.5 and 1 cm2. The peritoneal lesions were excised in toto with the help of scissors or a CO2 laser. The lower limit of the biopsies was the subperitoneal fat. In order to avoid sampling smooth muscles from an organ lying under the endometriotic lesion, no biopsies were from the uterine serosa, tubes or round ligaments.
Ovarian endometriosis
Ovarian endometriotic lesions were ovarian endometriotic cysts of >3 cm diameter (n = 9) and ovaries containing endometriomas of the same diameter (n = 3).
Uterosacral and rectovaginal nodules
Uterosacral and rectovaginal lesions were nodular lesions felt at physical examination and located deep in the uterosacral ligaments and rectovaginal septum. These lesions were excised by laparoscopy with a CO2 laser until no residual induration was felt in the surrounding tissues.
Controls
Controls were obtained the eutopic endometrium (n = 10) of patients with and without laparoscopically proven endometriosis. In both groups, actin stainings were performed on endometrial tissues of the early proliferative (n = 2) and secretory (n = 2) phases, mid proliferative (n = 2) and secretory (n = 2) phases and premenstrual phase (n = 2). Controls were also performed on the normal pelvic peritoneum (n = 10), ovaries (n = 4) and uterosacral ligaments (n = 6). To investigate the normal rectovaginal septum, actin stainings were performed on the rectovaginal septum of three female fetuses of more than 30 weeks (pregnancy interruption for lethal fetal cytomegalovirus infection) and on the rectovaginal septum of pelvectomy specimens (n = 2).
Immunohistochemistry
After deparaffinization in xylene and rehydration through graded concentrations of alcohol, the endogenous peroxidase activity was blocked in 0.3% H2O2 in methanol for 30 min. Then normal serum was applied in order to minimize non-specific reactivities. The sections were then incubated at 4°C overnight with the specific monoclonal primary antibody against muscle-specific actin (clone HHF 35, dilution 1/50; Biogenex, San Ramon, CA, USA) able to recognize actin isotypes alpha and gamma of smooth muscle cells. This antibody does not recognize other muscle filament proteins and it is non-reactive for other mesenchymal or epithelial cells except myoepithelial cells. After rinsing with Tris-buffered saline (TBS), biotinylated anti-mouse immunoglobulin (IgG) was applied for 30 min at room temperature. After rinsing again with TBS, preformed avidin and biotinylated horseradish peroxidase macromolecular complex (Vectastain Elite ABC kit; Vector Laboratories, Inc., Burlingame, CA, USA) was applied for 30 min at room temperature. The antigenantibody reaction was visualized using diaminobenzidine. The sections were then slightly counterstained with Mayer's haematoxylin, dehydrated and coverslipped. Negative control sections were processed by omitting the primary antibody. Positive controls consisted in uterine leiomyomas and normal myometrium.
Quantification of the smooth muscle content in endometriotic lesions and in unaffected tissues
Using a microscope grid (at x400) linked via a colour CCD video camera (MW-F15-e, Panasonic; Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co. Ltd, Osaka, Japan) to a large screen monitor (Panasonic Quintrix; Matsushita Electrical Co., Pentwyn, Cardiff, UK), we measured the smooth muscle content in the four different endometriotic locations and in their respective unaffected tissue by measuring the relative area occupied by smooth muscle cells (stained area/area occupied by unaffected tissue or by endometriotic lesion). Because the mean number of grid squares only partially filled (by actin positive tissue or by pathological tissue) did not exceed 0.9% per studied field (in the four different endometriotic locations for actin positive area evaluation and total lesion area evaluation as well as in the controls), only the entirely filled grid squares were counted. It must be emphasized that at x400 high power field, the area of a myocyte is larger than that of a grid square, which means that partially filled squares represent less than the area of a smooth muscle cell. In order to perform precise measurements, the areas of the intersects on the grid were measured on the monitor screen and taken into account in the evaluation of the area of actin-positive tissues, endometriotic lesions and the controls. The relative area occupied by smooth muscles was measured in at least 10 non-overlapping randomly selected high power fields (x400) in each endometriotic lesion on each slide and in each biopsy of the unaffected same pelvic location. Results are expressed as percentages (mean ± SD) representing the relative areas occupied by smooth muscles in unaffected tissues and in endometriotic lesions.
A computerized stereological method was not used in this study because there was not enough contrast between the haematoxylin-stained tissue and the actin-stained tissue.
Statistical analysis
Comparison of the data was performed using the Student's t-test (two-tailed). Statistical significance was defined as P < 0.001.
Special stainings
In order to differentiate smooth muscle cells from myofibroblasts, we performed silver stainings in the four different endometriotic locations. Silver stainings are able to reveal the external lamina basalis, composed of glycoproteins and collagen type 4, which is present in smooth muscle cells but not in myofibroblasts (Stevens and Lowe, 1997).
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Results |
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Discussion |
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Another possibility is that peristromal smooth muscles result from the differentiation of the stromal cells into smooth muscle cells. Red peritoneal lesions are often considered as early implantation of endometrial tissue while typical black lesions and white opacifications represent distinctive steps in the evolutionary process of the disease (Nisolle and Donnez, 1997). If this is correct, we would expect to find some smooth muscle differentiation in the eutopic endometrium of women with endometriosis, at least in the premenstrual tissue. However, actin stainings performed in the eutopic endometrium were all negative. In fact, smooth muscle metaplasia of the endometrial stroma is a rare event. Indeed, in the eutopic endometrium, smooth muscle metaplasia occasionally represent small foci of typical benign smooth muscles within the endometrium called `intra-endometrial leiomyomatosis'. In addition, only 12% of endometrial polyps show the presence of smooth muscle in their stroma (Silverberg and Kurman, 1991
).
According to Leyendecker, endometriosis is a disease of the endometrialsubendometrial unit also called archimetra (Leyendecker, 1998). This model postulates that endometriosis results from hyperperistalsis, dysperistalsis of the archimetra and increased intrauterine pressure causing increased transtubal transport. In agreement with Leyendecker's model but also Sampson's transplantation theory (Sampson, 1927), the absence of actin positive cells in the eutopic endometrium of patients with and without laparoscopically proven endometriosis and its very frequent presence in endometriotic lesions suggests that regurgitated endometrium undergoes some smooth muscle metaplasia under the influence of peritoneal fluid or that implanted endometrium causes a metaplastic response in the underlying tissue. There are numerous arguments to consider that the endometrium of patients with endometriosis differs from that of disease-free patients. These range from gross morphological changes such as the polypoid appearance of the endometrium at hysterosalpingography (McBean et al., 1996
), to changes in immunocytochemistry such as aberrant integrin expression (Lessey et al., 1994
), and biochemical changes such as overexpression of plasminogen activator receptor (Sillem et al., 1997) and abnormal endothelial, epithelial and stromal proliferation (Wingfield et al., 1995
). P-450 aromatase, which converts androgens into oestrone and oestradiol, is not expressed in the endometrium of patients without endometriosis (Prefontaine et al., 1990
; Noble et al., 1996
; Kitawaki et al., 1997
) but its expression has been demonstrated in the eutopic endometrium of patients with endometriosis and in the stroma of endometriotic lesions (Yamamoto et al., 1993
; Noble et al., 1996
, 1997
; Kitawaki et al., 1997
). This may result in an increased local concentration of oestrogens in the endometriotic lesion. Although actin positive cells were absent in the endometrium of patients with endometriosis in this study, such differences between the endometrium of patients with endometriosis and disease-free patients may result in microenvironmental conditions that could favour smooth muscle metaplasia within the regurgitated tissue or within the underlying tissue.
Among these differences, angiogenic factors and in particular vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) seem to play an important role in the evolution of the lesion after the first stage of implantation (Donnez et al., 1998; Healy et al., 1998
). It has been shown that the VEGF content is higher in red peritoneal lesions than in black peritoneal lesions. Lower VEGF concentrations in black lesions may explain the decrease in both stromal and epithelial vascularization, followed by fibrosis and inactivation of the implant (Donnez et al., 1998
). The smooth muscle content of peritoneal lesions does not seem to be correlated with the age of the lesion. Indeed, as we have shown here, black lesions contained a similar amount of muscle to red lesions. Nevertheless, it has been demonstrated that the amount of fibrotic tissue was more important in the stroma of black than in red lesions (Matsuzaki et al., 1999
).
Interestingly, a recent immunohistological study on pleuropulmonary endometriosis and pulmonary ectopic deciduosis also showed the presence of smooth muscle actin positive cells in most stromal cells of all endometriotic and ectopic decidual lesions (Flieder et al., 1998). It is postulated that viable endometrial tissue regurgitated through the Fallopian tubes enters the thorax through right diaphragmatic fenestrations (Sampson, 1927
). However, it must also be emphasized that the pleural and peritoneal cavity are both of mesodermal embryologic origin and that factors able to induce metaplasia could also pass through these diaphragmatic defects and induce pleural endometriosis by means of coelomic metaplasia (Gruenwald, 1942
).
Ovarian, uterosacral and rectovaginal lesions also contain significantly more smooth muscle cells than their respective unaffected sites (P < 0.001). In the normal ovary, the actin-stained cells are essentially located in the stroma while those of the endometriotic cysts are situated in the cortex (Figure 2). This observation is consistent with the hypothesis that ovarian endometriomas result from the metaplasia of the invaginated ovarian mesothelium into the ovarian cortex (Nisolle and Donnez, 1997
).
Uterosacral ligament and rectovaginal endometriotic nodules are considered as myoproliferative lesions (Brosens, 1994). Both these lesions are very similar: they are nodular and essentially composed of a similar amount of smooth muscle.
In addition to the above-mentioned smooth muscle metaplasia mechanisms, we cannot exclude that hyperplasia of the pre-existing smooth muscle cells occurs when endometriosis is located within or near abundant smooth muscle layers. Although there were no actin positive cells in the unaffected rectovaginal septum, this virtual space separates two important muscular zones: the anterior rectal muscularis and the posterior vaginal wall. Some authors found the presence of abundant smooth muscle cells in this area (Donnez et al., 1995). However they did not perform anti-actin immunohistochemistry. We believe their finding can be explained by the taking of very deep biopsies involving partly the anterior rectal or posterior vaginal muscularis (Donnez et al., 1995
). Concerning the significant difference between the smooth muscle content of ovarian endometriomas and uterosacral or rectovaginal endometriosis, there is no obvious explanation. Both deep infiltrating endometriosis and ovarian endometriotic cysts have escaped from the predominant influence of the peritoneal fluid. However, deep infiltrating lesions are mainly influenced by plasma sex steroid hormone concentrations whereas ovarian cysts will probably be influenced by the ovarian microenvironment with much higher steroid concentrations.
The growth of endometriotic lesions is not only under the control of sex steroids. Paracrine, autocrine and microenvironmental factors must also be considered. Further studies will be necessary to determine which microenvironmental factors cytokines, angiogenic factors, growth factors and specific proteins promote or inhibit the development of endometriotic lesions and their respective components.
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Notes |
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References |
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Submitted on August 6, 1999; accepted on January 5, 2000.