{"paper_id":"b59b0ff3-47be-4657-af93-11139c610e08","body_text":"Abstract\nEndometriosis is one of the most common, difficult, and complicated gynecological disorders. The present study investigated the expression of HOXC6 in endometriosis and described its possible role in its pathogenesis. Ectopic and eutopic endometrial samples from 21 patients with endometriosis and a control endometrium from 15 women without endometriosis were collected. HOXC6 expression in endometrial tissue was analyzed with immunohistochemistry and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. HOXC6’s silencing in endometriotic stromal cells (ESC) was established with small interfering RNA (siRNA) to detect the effect on proliferation, adhension, invasion, and migration using CCK-8, adhesion, wound healing, and transwell assays. Western blotting was performed to detect the expression of related molecules after the down-regulation of HOXC6. HOXC6 mRNA and protein expression levels in the ectopic endometrial samples were significantly higher in women with endometriosis than in controls, while the levels in the eutopic endometrial tissues of the same patients did not significantly differ from those in non-endometriotic patients. The knockdown of HOXC6 expression inhibited the proliferation, adhesion, migration, and invasion of ESC. The results indicated that HOXC6 down-expression decreased the expression of N-cadherin and vimentin, whereas the expression of E-cadherin increased. HOXC6 down-expression also decreased the expression levels of TGF-β1 and phosphorylated SMAD2/SMAD3. In conclusion, HOXC6 was overexpressed in endometriosis and might therefore promote the proliferation, adhesion, invasion, and migration of ESC via the TGF-β1/smad signaling pathway. These findings present a new perspective and may therefore inspire further study of the endometriosis mechanism.\nSimilar content being viewed by others\nData Availability\nThe datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.\nAbbreviations\n- ESC:\n-\nEndometriotic stromal cells\n- qRT-PCR:\n-\nQuantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction\n- siRNA:\n-\nSmall interfering RNA\n- PBS:\n-\nPhosphate buffered saline\n- CCK:\n-\nCell counting kit\n- NC:\n-\nNegative control\n- BC:\n-\nBlank control\nReferences\nZondervan KT, Becker CM, Missmer SA. Endometriosis. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:1244–56.\nSaunders PTK, Horne AW. Endometriosis: Etiology, pathobiology, and therapeutic prospects. Cell. 2021;184:2807–24.\nHorne AW, Missmer SA. Pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of endometriosis. BMJ. 2022;379:e070750.\nStein S, Fritsch R, Lemaire L, Kessel M. Checklist: vertebrate homeobox genes. 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LYZ contributed to tissue sample collection. LJL contributed to project design and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.\nCorresponding author\nEthics declarations\nEthics Approval\nThe study protocol was approved by the institutional review board of the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University (No.E22250), and informed consent was obtained from all the patients.\nConflict of interest\nThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.\nAdditional information\nPublisher's Note\nSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.\nSupplementary Information\nBelow is the link to the electronic supplementary material.\nRights and permissions\nSpringer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.\nAbout this article\nCite this article\nJiang, J., Zhang, L. & Li, L. Homeobox C6 is Up-Regulated and Affects the Pathogenesis of Endometriosis. Reprod. Sci. 32, 2574–2582 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43032-025-01918-3\nReceived:\nAccepted:\nPublished:\nVersion of record:\nIssue date:\nDOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43032-025-01918-3","source_license":"CC0","license_restricted":false}