Abstract:
Background: According to mRNA microarray, proteomics and other studies, biological abnormalities of eutopic
endometrium (EM) are involved in the pathogenesis of endometriosis, but the relationship between mRNA and
protein expression in EM is not clear. We tested for the first time the hypothesis that EM TRIzol extraction allows
proteomic Surface Enhanced Laser Desorption/Ionisation Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS) analysis
and that these proteomic data can be related to mRNA (microarray) data obtained from the same EM sample from
women with and without endometriosis.
Methods: Proteomic analysis was performed using SELDI-TOF-MS of TRIzol-extracted EM obtained during secretory
phase from patients without endometriosis (n = 6), patients with minimal-mild (n = 5) and with moderate-severe
endometriosis (n = 5), classified according to the system of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.
Proteomic data were compared to mRNA microarray data obtained from the same EM samples.
Results: In our SELDI-TOF MS study 32 peaks were differentially expressed in endometrium of all women with
endometriosis (stages I-IV) compared with all controls during the secretory phase. Comparison of proteomic results
with those from microarray revealed no corresponding genes/proteins.
Conclusion: TRIzol treatment of secretory phase EM allows combined proteomic and mRNA microarray analysis of
the same sample, but comparison between proteomic and microarray data was not evident, probably due to posttranslational
modifications.
