Expression of macrophage inflammatory protein-3β in human endometrium throughout the menstrual cycle

Objective: To determine the expression of macrophage inhibitory protein-3beta (MIP-3beta), a potential chemoattractant for endometrial natural killer (NK) cells, in the human endometrium. Design: An experimental study. Setting: University department of obstetrics and gynecology. Patient(s): Thirty-seven fertile women with regular menstrual cycles and nonpathological endometrium, undergoing hysterectomy. Intervention(s): Endometrium was obtained from operative samples. Main Outcome Measure(s): Paraffin-embedded endometrium was immunostained to determine the localization of MIP-3beta. The number of NK cells was counted in 10 nonoverlapping stromal areas. The MIP-3beta concentration in the homogenized endometrium. was determined by ELISA. Result(s): Immunoreactivity for MIP-3beta was observed in the surface epithelia, glandular epithelia, and stroma with some menstrual cycle-dependent fluctuation. The MIP-3beta concentration was significantly higher in the late secretory phase than in the other phases. It showed a trend toward correlation with the number of endometrial NK cells. Conclusion(s): MIP-3beta was expressed in the human endometrium, but our results could not strongly support the hypothesis that MIP-3beta is a potential chemoattractant for endometrial NK cells. ((C) 2004 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine).