Association between up-regulated expression proteins and circulating steroidal hormones in leiomyoma

Several studies have shown that both ovarian hormones estrogen and progesterone and various proteins are involved in uterine leiomyoma growth. We hereby describe a study carried out to investigate the possible relation between progesterone, estrone, 17β-estradiol and the seven dysregulated proteins in the leiomyoma. Statistical analyses showed a significant inverse rank correlation between desmin expressed in leiomyoma and progesterone (ρ = −0.9276; p = 0.0077) and between alpha-1-antitrypsin expressed in leiomyoma and 17β-estradiol (ρ = −0.8571; p = 0.0137). Our data suggest that decreased levels of 17-β-estradiol involve an increasing of the inflammation response stimulating alpha-1-antitrypsin expression in leiomyoma and that lower levels of progesterone associated with increasing of desmin expression may be related to increase of inflammation response, and to the role played by desmin in signal transduction inducing leiomyoma growth.