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Expression of apoptosis-related proteins in endometriomas and benign and malignant ovarian tumours

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Abstract

Apoptosis is a physiological process by which multicellular organisms eliminate superfluous cells. Alterations in apoptosis play a key role in tumour development. The objective was to evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of p53, p21, bax, bak, fas, bcl-2 and bcl-x proteins in 10 endometriomas, 20 benign ovarian tumours (10 mucinous, 10 serous) and 30 malignant ovarian tumours (9 mucinous, 19 serous; 2 endometrioids). p53 positive cells (mean±SD) in endometriomas, and benign and malignant tumours were 1.9±3.2, 0 and 16.2±33.0, respectively. The difference was significant between benign tumours and endometriomas (P=0.003) but not between endometriomas and malignant tumours. P21 expression in endometriomas and benign and malignant tumours was 19.5±27.8, 1.7±6.7 and 4.1±8.6, respectively. Increased p21 expression was found in endometriomas compared with benign (P=0.001) and malignant (P=0.01) tumours. Bax expression was higher in endometriomas than in benign tumours (P=0.01), but no difference was found between endometriomas and malignant tumours. No difference in bak, fas, bcl-2 or bcl-x expression was observed among the groups. In endometriomas, a negative correlation was found between p53 and fas expression (P=0.04, r=0.66). Although endometriomas have histological features of benign ovarian tumours, endometriomas share with malignant ovarian tumours certain alterations in apoptosis-related proteins.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Service de Gynécologie, Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu, AP-HP, France

    Raffaèle Fauvet, Anne Lavaur & Emile Daraï

  2. Laboratoire de biologie cellulaire, INSERM U327, Faculté Bichat-Claude Bernard, France

    Raffaèle Fauvet, Christophe Poncelet, Gérard Feldmann & Emile Daraï

  3. Service de Gynécologie-Obstétrique, Hôpital Tenon, 4 rue de la Chine, 75020 , Paris, France

    Emile Daraï

  4. Service d'Anatomie Pathologie, Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu, AP-HP, France

    Danièle Hugol

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  1. Raffaèle Fauvet
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  2. Christophe Poncelet
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  3. Danièle Hugol
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Correspondence to Emile Daraï.

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Fauvet, R., Poncelet, C., Hugol, D. et al. Expression of apoptosis-related proteins in endometriomas and benign and malignant ovarian tumours. Virchows Arch 443, 38–43 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-003-0813-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-003-0813-3

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