Objective

Kisspeptin is a neuropeptide that belongs to the Rfamide family. It is known for its crucial role in regulating the onset of puberty. In addition it also regulates sex hormone mediated secretion of gonadotrophins. Recently, expression of Kisspeptin in endometrium was reported. Kisspeptin has also been shown to have antimetastatic properties in different types of cancer. Endometriosis shares many of the biological features of cancer particularly migration and invasion. Our objective was to evaluate the abundance and localization of Kisspeptin in the endometrium of women with and without endometriosis. In addition, kisspeptin was evaluated in deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) and Endometrioma (OMA).

Design

This is a case control study.

Materials and Methods

We evaluated tissues obtained from a total of 21 patients (13 with endometriosis and 8 controls). In the controls, only eutopic endometrium “EUO-C” was obtained. In the endometriosis group, representative samples from eutopic endometrium “EUO-E” (N=8), as well as DIE (N=5) and OMA (N=5) were obtained. All tissues were immunostained for Kisspeptin using (sc-15400, Santacruz Biotechnology Inc.). Slides were scored according to the intensity and abundance of signal using histo-score. Data were analyzed using student-t and ANOVA one way with post hoc tests where appropriate.

Results

In eutopic endometrium, Kisspeptin expression was significantly lower in the glandular epithelium but not the stroma of EUO-E compared to EUO-C (p<0.01). Kisspeptin expression was significantly lower in the endometriotic stroma of both OMA and DIE compared to EUO-E (p<0.01). On the other hand, Kisspeptin expression was significantly lower only in the endometriotic glandular epithelium of DIE compared to EUO-E (p<0.01).

Conclusions

We have shown that Kisspeptin has a differential expression in patients with endometriosis with a tendency towards lower expression in ectopic locations. Given its antimetastatic properties, lower Kisspeptin expression may play a role in endometriosis invasiveness.