Fig. 5

Evidence of the correlation between si-SMOC2 and EMT-related factors expression in ectopic endometrial cell. A The expression level of SMOC2 mRNA was significantly reduced after silencing SMOC2, and the interference efficiency of si-SMOC2 - 1 was the highest by RT-PCR. B The mRNA expression of EMT-related factors and MMP9 in si-SMOC2 - 1 cell. The mRNA expression of N-cadherin, α-SMA, MMP9 were decreased, but E-cadherin was increased. C The protein expression of EMT-related factors and MMP9 in si-SMOC2 - 1 cell. Reduced N-cadherin, α -SMA, and MMP9 protein expression in adenomyosis by boxplots of results of their protein levels in control and ectopic endometrium, but E-cadherin was increased. ***p < 0.01, ****p < 0.001. Band intensity was quantified using Quantity One software. Target protein expression was normalized to β-actin (target band gray value/β-actin band gray value). The biological replicates were conducted three times