Figure 2.

ESCs and macrophages from endometriotic lesions highly expressed IL-27. (a) We co-cultured ESCs (normal ESCs or ectopic ESCs) with monocytes (n=5) from peripheral blood for 48 h. In addition, ESCs alone and monocytes alone were cultured as controls. Then, the secretion levels of IL-27, IL-6 and TGF-β1 were analyzed by ELISA. nESCs, ESCs from normal endometrium; eESCs, ectopic lesion with endometriosis; nESCs+Mo, co-culture of nESCs and monocytes; eESCs+Mo, co-culture of eESCs and monocytes (one-way ANOVA). (b) IL-27 expression in normal endometrium (n=6) and ectopic endometrium from women with endometriosis (n=8) by immunohistochemistry. Normal, normal endometrium; ectopic lesion from women with endometriosis. Original magnification: × 200. (c) The percentage of IL-27⁺ESCs (normal ESCs or ectopic ESCs, n=6) by flow cytometry (Student's t-test). (d) The percentage and median fluorescence intensity (MFI) of IL-27⁺monocytes of peripheral blood (pMo, n=6) and IL-27⁺macrophages of normal endometrium (nEMϕ, n=6) and ectopic lesions (eEMϕ, n=6) by flow cytometry (one-way ANOVA). (e) The IL-27 level in PF from women with (n=17, I–II: 8; III–IV: 9) and without (n=24) endometriosis by ELISA (one-way ANOVA). The data are expressed as the mean±S.E.M. *P<0.05, **P<0.01 and ***P<0.001