Differentially Expressed Genes in the Endometrium of Women with Intrauterine Adhesions

Study Objective Identification of molecular genetic markers in endometrial tissue of women of reproductive age with intrauterine adhesions/synechiae compared to molecular genetic markers in endometrium of healthy women. Design Prospective cohort study, II-3 (Canadian Classification). Setting Department of Operative Gynecology of the National Medical Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology & Perinatology, Moscow, Russia. Patients or Participants Group 1 – patients with intrauterine adhesions (n=10) and group 2 – healthy women without intrauterine adhesions (n=10) who underwent surgical treatment in our hospital between September 2015 to December 2016. Interventions Endometrial tissue samples were taken with a pipelle biopsy in the preoperative period, followed by microarray expression profiling using GeneChip Human Exon 1.0 ST Arrays (Affymetrix, USA). Hysteroscopy was performed in the proliferative phase of the menstrual cycle; assessment of the severity of the disease was carried out based on the AFS classification (1988). Measurements and Main Results 10 genes were revealed to have at least 3-fold mRNA change in endometrial tissue of women with intrauterine adhesions compared to the endometrial tissue of the group of conditionally healthy women. Amongst these changes we identified 9 genes that were shown to have an increased expression in patients with intrauterine adhesions (S100A8, HBB, VNN2, RGS2, ERAP2, AQP9, MNDA, TUBA3E, FCGR3B) and 1 gene with decreased expression (NTRK3). Conclusion Our study identifies significant difference in expression levels of 10 genes in endometrial tissue of women with intrauterine adhesions as compared with such expression in women without intrauterine synechiae. Such findings, when further verified, may be helpful in a study of the pathogenesis of the intrauterine adhesions or they may be used to design a molecular diagnostic tool suitable to individualize the treatment of this pathology.