ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate characteristics of endometriotic lesions clone with various pathological subtypes by analyzing the polymorphism of X chromosome linked human androgen receptor allele (HUMARA). Methods Eight frozen tissues of endometriotic leisons were collected from 6 patients who received laparotomy or laparoscopy surgery in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from Nov. 2008 to Jun. 2009. Fifty specimens of epithelial cells from single endometrial glands were isolated and collected from endometriotic lesions by using laser capture microdissection. HUMARA was applied as the gene marker of clonal analysis. Nested palymerase chain reaction, double-enzyme digestion reaction with two methylationsensitive restriction endonuclease (Hha Ⅰ and Hpa Ⅱ), and the automated gene sequencing technique were utilized in this study to evaluate the characteristics of endometriotic lesions clone. Results Of 50 specimens of isolated glands, 34 were informative for clonal analysis, and all of which showed monoclonality. Of 3 ovarian endometriotic tissues, one tissue of HUMARA showed unuseful information, the other 2 ovarian endometriotic tissues respectively had 4 and 7 informative specimens of gland epithelial cells, and all of the glands from each tissue showed uniform clonal pattern. Two peritoneal endometriotic tissues had 1 and 5 informative specimens from individual glands, respectively; and the clonal patterns in 5 glands from the single lesion were divergent. Two abdominal wall endometriotic tissues had 7 and 6 informative specimens,respectively; and variable clonal patterns were seen in different glands from each lesion. One deep infiltrating endometriotic lesion had 4 informative specimens of isolated glands, and all of them showed unique clonal pattern. The disparate clonal patterns were found in endometriotic lesions with variable pathological subtypes, even arising from the same patient. Conclusions The epithelial cells from individual endometriotic gland showed monoclonality , and different glands from the same endometriotic lesion might show divergent patterns.