Figure 1.

Immunostaining intensity of lysyl oxidase (LOX) protein in endometrial and endometriotic tissues in a TMA. A total of 164 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded endometrial and endometriotic tissues on a Tissue Microarray were analyzed by immunohistochemistryIHC. Using the intensity scale (3 = strong, 2 = moderate, 1 = weak, and 0 = no staining), 2 independent observers evaluated and blindly scored the immunostaining intensity of LOX in glands (Figure 1A) and stroma (Figure 1B). In order to use analysis of variance with post hoc Bonferroni contrasts, we used the natural logarithm of the intensity score plus 1 to approach normalization. One-way analysis of variance was carried out comparing the mean scores among 6 endometriotic lesion locations and the eutopic endometrium from patients and controls. Analysis was conducted separately for stroma and glands. The results are summarized graphically, depicting the mean intensity scores and error bars and the statistical significance level among them (a, P < .05; b, P < .01; c, P < .001).