The CXL12/CXCR4/CXCR7 axis in female reproductive tract disease: Review

Graciela Krikun
American journal of reproductive immunology (New York, N.Y. : 1989) · 2018 · vol. 80(5) , pp. e13028 · doi:10.1111/aji.13028 · PMID:30106199 · W2885434554
Review OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 1 in-corpus citation
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-28 ⓘ

This review examines the CXCL12/CXCR4/CXCR7 axis's role in female reproductive tract diseases including endometriosis, leiomyomas, and cancers, highlighting it as a potential therapeutic target.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Initial studies on the chemokine stromal derived factor 1 (now referred to as CXCL12) were proposed to be enhanced in several diseases including those which affect the female reproductive tract. These include endometriosis, Asherman's syndrome, endometrial cancers, and ovarian cancers. Additionally, recent studies from our laboratory suggest that CXCL12 signaling is involved in leiomyomas (fibroids). These diseases present an inflammatory/hypoxic environment which further promotes pathology. At first, studies focused on signaling by CXCL12 via its well-known receptor, CXCR4. However, the discovery of CXCR7 as another receptor for CXCL12 with rather high binding affinity and recent reports about its involvement in endometrial disease and cancer progression has questioned the potential of "selective blockade"' of CXCR4 to treat these ailments. This review will focus on the signaling and effects of the potent chemokine CXCL12, and its long-known G protein-coupled receptor CXCR4, as well as the alternate receptor CXCR7 on the female reproductive tract and related diseases such as endometriosis, Asherman's syndrome, leiomyomas, endometrial cancer, and ovarian cancer. Although several other mechanisms are inherent to these diseases such as gene mutations, differential expression of miRNAs and epigenetics, for this review, we will focus on the CXCL12/CXCR4/CXCR7 axis as a novel target.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Genitalia, Female Gynatresia Ovarian Neoplasms Receptors, CXCR Receptors, CXCR4 Uterine Neoplasms Animals Animals Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Female Genitalia, Female Genitalia, Female Gynatresia Gynatresia Humans Humans Molecular Targeted Therapy

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (79)

Cited by (1)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-14T06:08:39.101224+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:22:41.645679+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK