Expression of macrophage inflammatory protein-3β in human endometrium throughout the menstrual cycle

Abstract

Objective To determine the expression of macrophage inhibitory protein-3β (MIP-3β), a potential chemoattractant for endometrial natural killer (NK) cells, in the human endometrium. Design An experimental study. Setting University department of obstetrics and gynecology. Patient(s) Thirty-seven fertile women with regular menstrual cycles and nonpathological endometrium, undergoing hysterectomy. Intervention(s) Endometrium was obtained from operative samples. Main outcome measure(s) Paraffin-embedded endometrium was immunostained to determine the localization of MIP-3β. The number of NK cells was counted in 10 nonoverlapping stromal areas. The MIP-3β concentration in the homogenized endometrium was determined by ELISA. Result(s) Immunoreactivity for MIP-3β was observed in the surface epithelia, glandular epithelia, and stroma with some menstrual cycle–dependent fluctuation. The MIP-3β concentration was significantly higher in the late secretory phase than in the other phases. It showed a trend toward correlation with the number of endometrial NK cells. Conclusion(s) MIP-3β was expressed in the human endometrium, but our results could not strongly support the hypothesis that MIP-3β is a potential chemoattractant for endometrial NK cells.