Squatrito Marlyne, Blacher Silvia, Henry Laurie, Labied Soraya, Noel Agnès, Nisolle Michelle, Munaut Carine
Laboratory of Tumor and Development Biology, GIGA-Cancer, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, University of Liege, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
J Clin Med. 2022 Oct 19;11(20):6164. doi: 10.3390/jcm11206164.
BCL6 (B-cell lymphoma 6) is a proto-oncogene and transcriptional repressor initially described as being involved in B-cell lymphoma. Recently, this factor has been identified as a promising tissue biomarker which could be used to diagnose women affected by endometriosis. Previous studies used HSCORE for BCL6 staining quantification in the endometrium. However, this semi-quantitative technique of analysis has some limitations, including a lack of objectivity, robustness, and reproducibility that may lead to intra- and inter-observer variability. Our main goal was to develop an original computer-assisted method to quantify BCL6 staining from whole-slide images reliably. In order to test the efficiency of our new digital method of quantification, we compared endometrial BCL6 expression between fertile and infertile women without or with different stages of endometriosis by using the widely used HSCORE analysis and our new automatic digital image analysis. We find a higher expression of BCL6 in the endometrium of infertile women with endometriosis and women with stage IV endometriosis. Furthermore, we demonstrate a significant correlation between the two types of independent measurements, indicating the robustness of results and also the reliability of our computer-assisted method for BCL6 quantification. In conclusion, our work, by using this original computer-assisted method, enables BCL6 quantification more objectively, reliably, robustly, and promptly compared to HSCORE analysis.
BCL6（B细胞淋巴瘤6）是一种原癌基因和转录抑制因子，最初被描述为与B细胞淋巴瘤有关。最近，该因子已被确定为一种有前景的组织生物标志物，可用于诊断受子宫内膜异位症影响的女性。以往的研究使用HSCORE对子宫内膜中的BCL6染色进行定量分析。然而，这种半定量分析技术存在一些局限性，包括缺乏客观性、稳健性和可重复性，这可能导致观察者内部和观察者之间的差异。我们的主要目标是开发一种原始的计算机辅助方法，以可靠地从全切片图像中定量分析BCL6染色。为了测试我们新的数字定量方法的效率，我们通过使用广泛应用的HSCORE分析和我们新的自动数字图像分析，比较了有或没有不同阶段子宫内膜异位症的育龄和不孕女性的子宫内膜BCL6表达。我们发现患有子宫内膜异位症的不孕女性和IV期子宫内膜异位症女性的子宫内膜中BCL6表达较高。此外，我们证明了两种独立测量方法之间存在显著相关性，这表明结果的稳健性以及我们用于BCL6定量的计算机辅助方法的可靠性。总之，与HSCORE分析相比，我们的工作通过使用这种原始的计算机辅助方法，能够更客观、可靠、稳健和迅速地进行BCL6定量分析。
