ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: There is a large and increasing body of experimental and clinical data supporting the existence of variable estrogen receptors in both normal and neoplastic estrogen target tissue. Recently, exon 5 deleted estrogen receptor(D5-ER) has been identified in many estrogen dependent tumors. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between uterine myoma and D5-ER. METHODS: The relative amount of wild type estrogen receptor mRNA and D5-ER mRNA were examined in human myometrium and myoma tissue obtained from 12 myoma patients and 12 control subjects by RT-PCR. The correlation between WT/D5-ER ratio and age was also evaluated. RESULTS: There was no difference in expression of D5-ER mRNA not only between myoma and myometrim of the myoma patients, but also between myometrium of myoma patients and normal subjects. No significant correlation was found between D5-ER expression and age of the subjects in myometrial tissue. However, we could find negative correlation between WT/D5-ER ratio and age in myoma tissue. CONCLUSION: Upon these data, we conclude that D5-ER is a common variant mutation of estrogen receptor, which is not related with development of myoma. However, in myoma tissue, there is possibility that D5-ER may act some role in the growth of tumor.