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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Reproduction
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1450892
This article is part of the Research Topic Infertility and Endometriosis View all 24 articles
The expression of autophagy-related gene CXCL12 in endometriosis associated ovarian cancer and pan-cancer analysis
Provisionally accepted- 1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
- 2 Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Diseases of Women and Children, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
Background: Endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer (EAOC), an aggressive form of malignant ovarian neoplasm with origins in endometriosis (EM), has risen to prominence recently. Despite extensive investigation, the precise pathophysiology remains elusive.This article explores new autophagy-related DEG genes between EM and EAOC, and investigates CXCL12's expression and prognostic relevance across pan-cancer.From Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), we retrieved gene sequencing data to uncover DEGs. We carried out enrichment analysis, PPI network construction and explored CXCL12's multi-database expression and prognostic significance employing the analytical tools of ONCOMINE, PrognoScan, GEPIA, and Kaplan-Meier Plotter.Subsequently, assessing the relationship between CXCL12 expression and immune presence in cancer utilizing GEPIA and TIMER. . Lastly, CXCL12, IL17, STAT3, and FOXP3 protein expressions were determined through immunohistochemistry analysis in EAOC, EM, and normal endometrial tissues.Two DEGs were discovered and enrichment analysis indicated virus-cytokine/receptor interactions, chemokine signaling, and cytokine-cytokine receptor interplay as pivotal in EAOC. Notably, cancerous tissues exhibited reduced CXCL12 levels compared with non-malignant tissues across cancers. CXCL12, IL17, STAT3, Th17/Treg ratio, and FOXP3 expressions were also lower in EAOC than EM and normal tissues. Additionally, CXCL12 expression was related to stage, survival, immune subtype, and molecular classification across cancers..In conclusion, our study implicates CXCL12 and altered Th17/Treg balance in progression from EM to EAOC. CXCL12 emerges as a predictive marker for cancer progression across various tumors and is associated with inflammatory response.
Keywords: No. 20, 3rd section, South Renmin Road, Chengdu, Endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer, Autophagy, Integrated bioinformatics approaches, Pan-cancer
Received: 18 Jun 2024; Accepted: 24 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yuan, Chen, Liao and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kana Wang, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan Province, China
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