This study was performed to investigate the functional roles of hypoxia and HIF-1 α, leading to expression of VEGF and FGF in the pathogenesis of endometriosis.

From September 2005 to february 2006, endometrial stromal cells were obtained from the patients with or without endometrosis at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Ewha Womans University Dongdaemun Hospital. These cells were cultured and treated with 100uM desferrioxamine (DFO) for 0hr and 2hr. After the extraction of total RNA, RT-PCR was performed and the expression level of HIF-1 α, VEGF and FGF mRNA were measured by β-actin as 1. Statistical analysis was performed by Wilcoxon signed rank test and Mann-Whitney U test (SPSS 12.0 version). A p value of 0.05 was considered as the limit for statistical significance.

Chemical hypoxia condition with DFO in normal endometrium results m the up-regulation of HIF-1 α, but it was significantly decreased in the eutopic endometrium of the patients with endometriosis. The expression of VEGF in normal control group was not changed, but it was increased in endometriosis group under chemical hypoxia. Hypoxia with DFO induced the overexpression of FGF in endometriosis group, compared that it was slightly decreased in normal endometrium.

Hypoxia and subsequent production of HIF-1 α might regulate angiogenesis by the expression of VEGF and FGF, that is related to the pathogenesis of endometriosis. However, further studies are warranted to confirm.

The production of basic fibroblast growth factor(bFGF), which is known to have strong angiogenic activity in gastric cancer, was evaluated.

Using Alkaline phosphoatase-labelled, synthetic oligonucleotide probe of bFGF genes, the expression of the gene was evaluated with in situ hybridization method in 9 fresh advanced gastric cancer tissues.

In situ Hybridization of bFGF mRNA showed positive reaction in 8 of 9 patients.

In view of profuse expression of angiogenic growth factor, future therapeutic targeting for angiogenesis could be reasonable in patients with gastric cancer.