Effect of Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway on of matrix metalloproteinase-7 and vascular endothelial growth factor gene expressions in endometriosis.

PURPOSE: To explore the function of Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway on promoting the adhesion, invasion, and metastasis of endometriosis tissues by analyzing its effects on the expressions of matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7) and vascular endothelial growth factor in en- dometriosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Endometriosis nude mice models were included. Small RNA interference technology was used to block Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway. HE staining technique was adopted to observe the difference of pathological morphology among groups. The immunohistochemistry and real-time quantitative PCR were perfonned to analyze the expressions of $-catenin, MMP-7 and VEGF from pro- tein and mRNA levels. RESULTS: Whether the Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway was blocked or not had little effect on the pathological mor- phology of lesions. The expressions of P-catenin, MMP-7 and VEGF in siRNA group were much lower than those in negative control group and control group (p 0.05). CONCLUSION: Blocking of Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway caused the decrease of MMP-7 and VEGF expressions, in- dicating that Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway plays an important role in the adhesion, invasion, and metastasis of endometriosis tissues.