Fig. 5

STAT3 regulates Activin A-induced CTGF expression in endometrial MSCs through Smad2/3. a Eutopic endometrial MSCs derived from patients without endometriosis (n = 3) were treated with 0.18 μg/mL αActivin A for 1 h and then 25 ng/mL recombinant human Activin A for 1 h. The protein expression of p-Akt, p-Akt, p-p38, p-38, p-JNK, JNK, p-STAT3 and STAT3 was analyzed by Western blot. b-d Eutopic endometrial MSCs derived from patients without endometriosis (n = 3) were treated with 10 μM Stattic for 1 h and then 25 ng/mL recombinant human Activin A for 3 h, the mRNA expression of CTGF was analyzed by q-PCR (b). After treatment with Activin A for 3 h, the protein expression of CTGF was analyzed by Western blot (c). The data were presented as means ± SD. ***P < 0.001 versus the cells treated with neither Activin A nor Stattic. The protein expression of p-Smad2, p-Smad3 and Smad2/3 was analyzed by Western blot (d). e Proposed model for Activin A-induced CTGF expression in endometrial MSCs