Differential expression of visfatin, leptin, stromal cell derived factor-1α, endothelial nitric oxide synthase, and vascular endothelial growth factor in human leiomyomas.

Aim: This study was aimed to understand expressions of the visfatin, leptin, stromal cell derived factor (SDF)-1, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in human uterine leiomyomas (UL) and normal myometrium.Method: This study investigated expression of visfatin, leptin, SDF-1, eNOS and VEGF in 23 uterine leiomyoma patients and 10 normal myometrium by RT-PCR and western blot. Messenger RNA transcripts of SDF-1, eNOS, VEGF and hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) were analyzed according to the size of UL by real-time PCR.Results: There were no significant differences in expressions of visfatin and leptin between UL compared with normal myometrium. However, expressions of eNOS, SDF-1 and VEGF were significantly higher in both intramural and subserosal UL compared with normal myometrium. The expression of SDF1- was significantly increased in small UL (<5cm) compared to the large UL (5cm), whereas the expressions of eNOS, VEGF and HIF-1 were higher in large UL than small UL.Conclusions: This study shows that expression of SDF-1, eNOS and VEGF were significantly higher in UL than myometrium with a different expression pattern according to the size of UL. However, expressions of visfatin and leptin had no significant differences between the two groups.