Surgical removal of intramural fibroids improves the TNF-α induced inflammatory events in endometrium.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether surgical removal of intramural fibroids makes any changes in the expression of endometrial tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB).

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

20 patients who had no pathology other than intramural fibroid as a cause of subfertility were included in the study. 6 patients who planned tubal ligation were considered as the control group. Type 3 or 4 fibroid diagnosis was made according to the revised International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO). At the end of the diagnostic and confirmatory tests, 8 patients were diagnosed with type 3 and 12 patients with type 4 fibroids. While the patients in the fibroid group went to myomectomy, the patients in the control group went to tubal ligation. Before the myomectomy, endometrial sampling was performed with a pipelle cannula under anesthesia. The same procedure was repeated three months after the treatment. The same endometrial sampling procedure was also performed on the patients in the control group. TNF-alpha and NF-κB levels were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in endometrial samples taken before and three months after myomectomy.

RESULTS

Pre-myomectomy TNF-α levels of the patients in the type 3 fibroid group were significantly higher than the control group (5.10±1.30 vs. 2.50±0.11, p<0.01). Similarly, the pre-myomectomy TNF-α levels of the patients in the type 4 fibroid group were significantly higher than the control group (4.73±1.76 vs. 2.50±0.11, p<0.01). There was no significant difference between pre-myomectomy endometrial TNF-α levels of patients in type 3 and 4 fibroid groups (5.10±1.30 vs. 4.73±1.76, p>0.05). Removal of type 3 fibroids by myomectomy significantly decreased TNF-α levels (5.10±1.30 vs. 2.20±0.44, p<0.03). Similarly, removal of type 4 fibroids by myomectomy significantly decreased TNF-α levels (4.73±1.76 vs. 2.60±0.30, p<0.04). Pre-myomectomy NF-κB levels of the patients in the type 3 fibroid group were significantly higher than the control group (2.42±0.39 vs. 1.09±0.60, p<0.02). Similarly, the pre-myomectomy NF-κB levels of the patients in the type 4 fibroid group were significantly higher than the control group (2.04±0.50 vs. 1.09±0.60, p<0.01). There was no significant difference between the pre-myomectomy endometrial NF-κB levels of the patients in the type 3 and 4 fibroid groups (2.42±0.39 vs. 2.04±0.50 p>0.05). Removal of type 3 fibroids by myomectomy significantly decreased NF-κB levels (2.42±0.39 vs. 1.02±0.33, p<0.01). Similarly, removal of type 4 fibroids by myomectomy significantly decreased NF-κB levels (2.04±0.50 vs. 0.97±0.02, p<0.02).

CONCLUSIONS

Surgical removal of type 3 or type 4 fibroids contributes positively to receptivity by down-regulating endometrial TNF-α and NF-ƙB.