The following is a summary of “Increased chemokine ligand 26 expression and its involvement in epithelial-mesenchymal transition in the endometrium with adenomyosis,” published in the November 2023 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology by Ikebuchi, et al.

Women with adenomyosis have problems with their periods, their uterus bleeding, and their ability to have children. For a study, researchers sought to look at how the endometrium with adenomyosis expresses certain inflammatory cytokines and how they relate to the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Endometrial samples were taken from premenopausal women with (n = 3) or without (n = 3) adenomyosis during the secretory phase, and DNA array analysis was done to examine inflammation cytokines. 

Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (n = 19) and immunohistochemistry (n = 56) were used to check the gene and protein expression amounts again. We did an immunohistochemical study using the Histo-scores of chemokine ligand 26 (CCL26) and EMT-related factors on uterine tissues removed for adenomyosis (n = 37). These tissues came from patients treated with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa). Endometrial epithelial cells were also used in an invasion experiment.

It was found that CCL26, IL-1B, and CCL3 were all increased by the DNA array. The endometrium with adenomyosis had a lot more CCL26 mRNA than the endometrium without adenomyosis. An immunohistochemical study showed that CCL26 expression was higher in the epithelial cells of the basal layer of the endometrium that had adenomyosis compared to those that did not have adenomyosis, even when GnRHa was used. There was a positive relationship between CCL26 expression and neural-cadherin and ZEB1 expression in the basal layer of the uterus with adenomyosis. There were also high expression levels of CCL26 and ZEB1 in cases with intrinsic-type adenomyosis. Exogenous CCL26 made uterine epithelial cells more likely to invade. CCL26 is an inflammatory factor that may play a role in the development of adenomyosis by encouraging EMT in the lower endometrium.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2468784723001125