Environmental concentrations of microplastic-induced gut microbiota and metabolite disruption in silkworm, Bombyx mori.

Microplastics (MPs) existing extensively in various ecosystems can be ingested by marine organisms and enter the food chain, resulting the health risks from the presence of MPs in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. In the present study, an ideal model for Lepidoptera, the silkworm, Bombyx mori, was exposed to environmental concentrations (0.125 µg, 0.25 µg or 0.5 µg/diet) of MPs for 5 days, and the global changes in gut microbes and metabolites were subsequently examined via 16S rDNA sequencing and GC‒MS-based metabolomics. The results showed that MPs exposure did not seriously threaten survival but may regulate signaling pathways involved in development and cocoon production. MPs exposure induced gut microbiota perturbation according to the indices of α-diversity and ß-diversity, and the functional prediction of the altered microbiome and associated metabolites demonstrated the potential roles of the altered microbiome following MPs exposure in the metabolic and physiological states of silkworm. The metabolites markedly altered following MPs exposure may play vital biological roles in energy metabolism, lipid metabolism, xenobiotic detoxification and the immune system by directly or indirectly affecting the physiological state of silkworms. These findings contribute to assessing the health risks of MPs exposure in model insects and provide novel insight into the toxicity mechanism of MPs.

Flexible cellulose nanofibers/MXene composite films for UV-shielding packaging.

Cellulose nanofibers (CNF) based films are promising packaging materials, but the lack of special functions (especially UV-shielding property) usually restrict their further applications. In this work, MXene was incorporated into the CNF film by a direct solvent volatilization induced film forming method to study its UV-shielding property for the first time, which avoided the using of a vacuum filtration equipment. The composite films containing glycerin could be folded repeatedly without breaking, showing good flexibility. The structure and properties of MXene/CNF composite films (CMF) were characterized systematically. The results showed that MXene distributed uniformly in the CNF film matrix and there was strong hydrogen bonding interaction between CNF and MXene. The tensile strength and Young's modulus of the composite films could reach 117.5 MPa and 2.23 GPa, which was 54.1 % and 59.2 % higher than those of pure CNF film, respectively. With the increase of MXene content, both the UVA and UVB shielding percentages increased significantly from 17.2 % and 25.5 % to 100.0 %, showing excellent UV-shielding property. Moreover, CMF exhibited a low oxygen permeability (OP) value of 0.39 cc µm d-1 m-2 kPa-1, a low water vapor permeability (WVP) value of 5.13 × 10-11 g-1s-1Pa-1 and a high antibacterial rate against E. coli (94.1 % at 24 h), showing potential application in the packaging field.

Genome- and transcriptome-wide identification of trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatases (TPP) gene family and their expression patterns under abiotic stress and exogenous trehalose in soybean.

BACKGROUND: Trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (TPP) is an essential enzyme catalyzing trehalose synthesis, an important regulatory factor for plant development and stress response in higher plants. However, the TPP gene family in soybean has not been reported. RESULTS: A comprehensive analysis of the TPP gene family identified 18 GmTPPs classified into eight groups based on the phylogenetic relationships and the conservation of protein in six monocot and eudicot plants. The closely linked subfamilies had similar motifs and intron/exon numbers. Segmental duplication was the main driving force of soybean GmTPPs expansion. In addition, analysis of the cis-regulatory elements and promoter regions of GmTPPs revealed that GmTPPs regulated the response to several abiotic stresses. Moreover, RNA-seq and qRT-PCR analysis of the tissue-specific GmTPPs under different abiotic stresses revealed that most GmTPPs were associated with response to different stresses, including cold, drought, saline-alkali, and exogenous trehalose. Notably, exogenous trehalose treatment up-regulated the expression of most TPP genes under saline-alkali conditions while increasing the carbohydrate and trehalose levels and reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in soybean sprouts, especially in the saline-alkali tolerant genotype. Furthermore, the interaction network and miRNA target prediction revealed that GmTPPs interacted with abiotic stress response-related transcription factors. CONCLUSIONS: The findings in this study lay a foundation for further functional studies on TPP-based breeding to improve soybean development and stress tolerance.

Impact of dienogest pretreatment on IVF-ET outcomes in patients with endometriosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: To comprehensively evaluate the influence of dienogest (DNG) versus non-DNG pretreatment on in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) outcomes for patients with endometriosis. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, WanFang, and VIP were comprehensively searched for relevant publications until September 14, 2022. Primary outcomes included clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate. Secondary outcomes included retrieved oocytes, mature oocytes, blastocysts, growing follicles, transferrable embryos, fertilization rate, implantation rate, and miscarriage rate. Subgroup analysis was performed according to different grouping methods and embryo types. RESULTS: Five studies of 568 females with endometriosis were involved in this systematic review and meta-analysis. DNG treatment exhibited similar effects to non-DNG treatment on either the primary or the secondary outcomes (all P > 0.05). The DNG group had a significantly greater clinical pregnancy rate than the non-hormonal treatment group (pooled relative risk [RR]: 2.055, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.275, 3.312, P = 0.003), and exhibited a significantly lower clinical pregnancy rate than the long gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH-a) group (RR: 0.542, 95%CI: 0.321, 0.916, P = 0.022). For patients undergoing fresh embryo transfer, the DNG group displayed a significantly greater clinical pregnancy rate versus the non-DNG group (pooled RR: 1.848, 95%CI: 1.234, 2.767, P = 0.003). Patients receiving DNG had a significantly greater live birth rate than those with non-hormonal treatment (pooled RR: 2.136, 95%CI: 1.223, 3.734, P = 0.008), while having a significantly lower live birth rate than the long GnRH-a group (RR: 0.441, 95%CI: 0.214, 0.907, P = 0.026). While using fresh embryos, patients with DNG treatment had an increased live birth rate, compared with those without DNG treatment (pooled RR: 2.132, 95%CI: 1.090, 4.169, P = 0.027). CONCLUSION: DNG treatment may have similar effects to non-DNG treatment on IVF-ET outcomes. The clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate after DNG treatment may be significantly higher than those after non-hormonal treatment. More evidence is warranted to corroborate these findings.

Vision-based food nutrition estimation via RGB-D fusion network.

With the development of deep learning technology, vision-based food nutrition estimation is gradually entering the public view for its advantage in accuracy and efficiency. In this paper, we designed one RGB-D fusion network, which integrated multimodal feature fusion (MMFF) and multi-scale fusion for visioin-based nutrition assessment. MMFF performed effective feature fusion by a balanced feature pyramid and convolutional block attention module. Multi-scale fusion fused different resolution features through feature pyramid network. Both enhanced feature representation to improve the performance of the model. Compared with state-of-the-art methods, the mean value of the percentage mean absolute error (PMAE) for our method reached 18.5%. The PMAE of calories and mass reached 15.0% and 10.8% via the RGB-D fusion network, improved by 3.8% and 8.1%, respectively. Furthermore, this study visualized the estimation results of four nutrients and verified the validity of the method. This research contributed to the development of automated food nutrient analysis (Code and models can be found at http://123.57.42.89/codes/RGB-DNet/nutrition.html).

The effects of short-term dietary exposure to SiO2 nanoparticle on the domesticated lepidopteran insect model silkworm (Bombyx mori): Evidence from the perspective of multi-omics.

Silicon dioxide nanoparticles (nSiO2) are one of the widely utilized nanoparticle (NPSs) materials, and exposure to nSiO2 is ubiquitous. With the increasing commercialization of nSiO2, the potential risk of nSiO2 release to the health and the ecological environment have been attracted more attention. In this study, the domesticated lepidopteran insect model silkworm (Bombyx mori) was utilized to evaluate the biological effects of dietary exposure to nSiO2. Histological investigations showed that nSiO2 exposure resulted in midgut tissue injury in a dose-dependent manner. Larval body mass and cocoon production were reduced by nSiO2 exposure. ROS burst was not triggered, and the activities of antioxidant enzymes were induced in the midgut of silkworm exposure to nSiO2. RNA-sequencing revealed that the differentially expressed genes induced by nSiO2 exposure were predominantly enriched into xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism, lipid, and amino acid metabolism pathways. 16 S rDNA sequencing revealed that nSiO2 exposure altered the microbial diversity in the gut of the silkworm. Metabolomics analysis showed that the combined uni- and multivariate analysis identified 28 significant differential metabolites from the OPLS-DA model. These significant differential metabolites were predominantly enriched into the metabolic pathways, including purine metabolism and tyrosine metabolism and so. Spearman correlation analysis and the Sankey diagram established the relationship between microbe and metabolites, and some genera may play crucial and pleiotropic functions in the interaction between microbiome and host. These findings indicated that nSiO2 exposure could impact the dysregulation of genes related to xenobiotics metabolism, gut dysbiosis, and metabolic pathways and provided a valuable reference for assessing nSiO2 toxicity from a multi-dimensional perspective.

Rapid Non-Destructive Analysis of Food Nutrient Content Using Swin-Nutrition.

Food non-destructive detection technology (NDDT) is a powerful impetus to the development of food safety and quality. One of the essential tasks of food quality regulation is the non-destructive detection of the food's nutrient content. However, existing food nutrient NDDT performs poorly in terms of efficiency and accuracy, which hinders their widespread application in daily meals. Therefore, this paper proposed an end-to-end food nutrition non-destructive detection method, named Swin-Nutrition, which combined deep learning and NDDT to evaluate the nutrient content of food. The method aimed to fully capture the feature information from the food images and thus accurately estimate the nutrient content. Swin-Nutrition resorted to Swin Transformer, the feature fusion module (FFM), and the nutrient prediction module to evaluate nutrient content. In particular, Swin Transformer acted as the backbone network for feature extraction of food images, and FFM was used to obtain the discriminative feature representation to improve the accuracy of prediction. The experimental results on the Nutrition5k dataset demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed method. Specifically, the mean value of the percentage mean absolute error (PMAE) for calories, mass, fat, carbohydrate, and protein were only 15.3%, 12.5%, 22.1%, 20.8%, and 15.4%, respectively. We hope that our simple and effective method will provide a solid foundation for the research of food NDDT.

Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of phospholipase D gene in leaves of sorghum in response to abiotic stresses.

Abiotic stress caused by unsuitable environmental changes brings serious impacts on the growth and development of sorghum, resulting in significant loss in yield and quality every year. Phospholipase D is one of the key enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of phospholipids, and participates in plants response to abiotic stresses and phytohormones, whereas as the main producers of Phosphatidic acid (PA) signal, the detailed information about Phospholipase D associated (SbPLD) family in sorghum has been rarely reported. This study was performed to identify the PLD family gene in sorghum based on the latest genome annotation and to determine the expression of PLDs under abiotic stresses by qRT-PCR analysis. In this study, 13 PLD genes were identified in sorghum genome and further divided into 7 groups according to the phylogenetic analysis. All sorghum PLD family members harbored two conserved domains (HDK1&2) with catalytic activity, and most members contained a C2 domain. In ζ subfamily, C2 domain was replaced by PX and PH domain. The exon-intron structure of SbPLD genes within the same subfamily was highly conservative. The tissue specific expression analysis revealed different expression of SbPLD genes in various developmental stages. High level expression of SbPLDα3 was observed in almost all tissues, whereas SbPLDα4 was mainly expressed in roots. Under abiotic stress conditions, SbPLD genes responded actively to NaCl, ABA, drought (PEG) and cold (4 °C) treatment at the transcriptional level. The expression of SbPLDß1 was significantly up-regulated, while the transcription of SbPLDζ was suppressed under various stress conditions. In addition, SbPLDß1 and SbPLDδ2 were predicted to be the target genes of sbi-miR159 and sbi-miR167, respectively. This study will help to decipher the roles of PLDs in sorghum growth and abiotic stress responses. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-022-01200-9.

Immunomodulatory effects of Nigella sativa seed polysaccharides by gut microbial and proteomic technologies.

Cyclophosphamide (CTX) was used to establish the immunosuppressive mice model. The immune organ viscera index, phagocytes vitality, the levels of cytokines in serum, the oxidative stress resistance, proteomics and intestinal flora in mice were investigated to evaluate the effect of immune regulation of Nigella sativa seed polysaccharide (NSSP). The results showed that the high-dose NSSP group could significantly increase the thymus and spleen index. The levels of ACP, LDH, T-AOC, SOD, IL-2, IL-4 and IL-6 were significantly increased and the levels of TNF-α and MDA were reduced. All evidences indicated that NSSP could improve the immune effects of the immunosuppressed mice. Proteomics investigation showed that NSSP could improve the immune by regulating the differential proteins of PI3K and PTEN, and regulating the metabolism-related pathways such as autoimmune diseases and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. of Gut microbes analysis showed that NSSP could exert immunomodulatory effects by improving the structure of the intestinal flora, increasing the diversity of the flora, and regulating metabolic pathways such as lipid metabolism, polysaccharide synthesis and signal transduction by the prediction of flora metabolic functions. In addition, NSSP could regulate intestinal environment by regulating the content of short chain fatty acids.

Membrane Lipids' Metabolism and Transcriptional Regulation in Maize Roots Under Cold Stress.

Low temperature is one of the major abiotic stresses that restrict the growth and development of maize seedlings. Membrane lipid metabolism and remodeling are key strategies for plants to cope with temperature stresses. In this study, an integrated lipidomic and transcriptomic analysis was performed to explore the metabolic changes of membrane lipids in the roots of maize seedlings under cold stress (5°C). The results revealed that major extraplastidic phospholipids [phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidic acid (PA), and phosphatidylinositol (PI)] were dominant membrane lipids in maize root tissues, accounting for more than 70% of the total lipids. In the transcriptome data of maize roots under cold stress, a total of 189 lipid-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were annotated and classified into various lipid metabolism pathways, and most of the DEGs were enriched in the "Eukaryotic phospholipid synthesis" (12%), "Fatty acid elongation" (12%), and "Phospholipid signaling" (13%) pathways. Under low temperature stress, the molar percentage of the most abundant phospholipid PC decreased around 10%. The significantly up-regulated expression of genes encoding phospholipase [phospholipase D (PLD)] and phosphatase PAP/LPP genes implied that PC turnover was triggered by cold stress mainly via the PLD pathway. Consequently, as the central product of PC turnover, the level of PA increased drastically (63.2%) compared with the control. The gene-metabolite network and co-expression network were constructed with the prominent lipid-related DEGs to illustrate the modular regulation of metabolic changes of membrane lipids. This study will help to explicate membrane lipid remodeling and the molecular regulation mechanism in field crops encountering low temperature stress.

Mediation by human mobility of the association between temperature and COVID-19 transmission rate.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a major threat to global health. Relevant studies have shown that ambient temperature may influence the spread of novel coronavirus. However, the effect of ambient temperature on COVID-19 remains controversial. Human mobility is also closely related to the pandemic of COVID-19, which could be affected by temperature at the same time. The purpose of this study is to explore the underlying mechanism of the association of temperature with COVID-19 transmission rate by linking human mobility. The effective reproductive number, meteorological conditions and human mobility data in 47 countries are collected. Panel data models with fixed effects are used to analyze the association of ambient temperature with COVID-19 transmission rate, and the mediation by human mobility. Our results show that there is a negative relationship between temperature and COVID-19 transmission rate. We also observe that temperature is positively associated with human mobility and human mobility is positively related to COVID-19 transmission rate. Thus, the suppression effect (also known as the inconsistent mediation effect) of human mobility is confirmed, which remains robust when different lag structures are used. These findings provide evidence that temperature can influence the spread of COVID-19 by affecting human mobility. Therefore, although temperature is negatively related to COVID-19 transmission rate, governments and the public should pay more attention to control measures since people are more likely to go out when temperature rising. Our results could partially explain the reason why COVID-19 is not prevented by warm weather in some countries.

Distal locked versus unlocked intramedullary nailing for stable intertrochanteric fractures, a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Intramedullary nails have become the main treatment for intertrochanteric fractures. However, a distal locking procedure during nailing gradually raised controversy. In this study, a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials was performed to summarize existing evidence, aiming to determine the safety and efficacy of distal locking or unlocking in the nailing of stable intertrochanteric fractures. METHODS: Appropriate articles were identified using the most common public databases, such as PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar from the inception of each database to April 2019, without restriction of language, publication date, and considering ongoing trials. Eligible studies were represented by randomized controlled trials or retrospective cohort studies, comparing distal locking and unlocking for the treatment of acute stable intertrochanteric fractures in adult patients. Information regarding methodological quality, patient demographics, and clinical outcomes were extracted independently by two reviewers. Subsequently, patients were divided into a locking and unlocking group. RESULTS: This study included 9 articles, comprising a total of 1978 patients with a similar baseline. The results showed that the unlocking group had a shorter operation time, less intraoperative bleeding, lower transfusion rate, and less thigh pain after the treatment of femoral intertrochanteric fracture when compared with the distal locking group. No significant differences were observed in safety-related outcomes, including mortality, infection rate, cutting out, loss of reduction, backing out of lag screws, cephalic screw breakage, nail breakage, and peri-implant fractures between the two groups. In addition, efficacy-related outcomes including nonunion, delayed healing rates, and the Harris functional score were not significantly different between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our pooled analysis demonstrated that distal unlocking of stable intertrochanteric fractures can shorten the operation time, reduce intraoperative bleeding, and reduce the blood transfusion rate. The use of locked or unlocked intramedullary nailing does not affect long-term outcomes regarding complications and function.

Long non-coding RNA DLEU1 contributes to the development of endometrial cancer by sponging miR-490 to regulate SP1 expression.

This study aimed to investigate the role of long non-coding RNA DLEU1 in endometrial cancer (EC) development. The DLEU1 expression in EC tissues and cells (HHUA, KLE, Ishikawa, and ECC-1) were detected. The expression of DLEU1 was suppressed by transfection with sh-DLEU1 and the effects of DLEU1 suppression on the malignant behaviors of Ishikawa cells, including cell viability, apoptosis, migration and migration were then detected. In addition, the interaction of DLEU1 and miR-490 as well as between miR-490 and SP1 in EC were investigated. Furthermore, the regulatory relationship between DLEU1 and PI3K/AKT/GSK-3ß pathway was explored. DLEU1 was upregulated in EC tissues and cells. Suppression of DLEU1 significantly inhibited Ishikawa cell viability, promoted cell apoptosis, decreased BCL-2 expression and increased the expression of Bax, cleaved-caspase-3 and cleaved-caspase-3, suppressed cell migration and invasion, and inhibited EMT via increasing the expression of E-cadherin and decreasing the expression of N-cadherin, Snail and Vimentin. In addition, DLEU1 could sponge miR-490 and miR-490 inhibition significantly reversed the effects of DLEU1 suppression on the malignant behaviors of Ishikawa cells. Furthermore, SP1 was verified as a target of miR-490, and SP1 knockdown could reverse the effects of miR-490 inhibition on the malignant behaviors of Ishikawa cells. Besides, suppression of DLEU1 inhibited PI3K/AKT/GSK-3ß pathway, while miR-490 inhibition activated this pathway that could be neutralized by SP1 knockdown. Our findings indicate that DLEU1 contributes to EC development by sponging miR-490 to regulate SP1 expression. DLEU1/miR-490/SP1 axis may provide a new strategy for EC therapy.

Association Between MTHFR C677T Polymorphism and Methotrexate Treatment Outcome in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

PURPOSE: Methotrexate (MTX) is one of the most widely used disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, its efficacy in RA patients is variable and unpredictable. Methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is an important enzyme in the MTX pathway and is involved in folate metabolism and DNA synthesis. Several studies have examined the association between the MTHFR C677T polymorphism and MTX toxicity and efficacy in RA, but their conclusions remain controversial. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a comprehensive literature search of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases to identify studies reporting an association between the MTHFR C677T single nucleotide polymorphism and MTX response in RA patients. RESULTS: We identified 16 studies reporting MTX efficacy in 2373 RA cases, and 25 studies reporting MTX toxicity in 4063 RA cases. The pooled data analysis indicated that the MTHFR C677T polymorphism was associated with increased toxicity, but not efficacy, of MTX in RA patients. Further stratification based on ethnicity revealed an association between the MTHFR 677TT genotype and overall MTX toxicity in East Asian and Caucasian patient populations. In addition, RA patients with the MTHFR C677T polymorphism who were supplemented with folic acid displayed significantly elevated risk for MTX toxicity. CONCLUSION: Our study indicated that the MTHFR C677T polymorphism could be used as a predictor of MTX toxicity in RA patients. However, large randomized prospective studies will be required to effectively replicate and validate these findings.

Associations between C677T and A1298C polymorphisms of MTHFR and susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Methylenetetrahydrofolatereductase (MTHFR) is an important enzyme involved in folate metabolism and DNA synthesis. Although a number of studies have examined the association of the MTHFR C677T and A1298C polymorphisms with susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the conclusions are controversial. A comprehensive literature search using PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, CNKI and Wanfang databases was conducted for relevant studies on the association between MTHFR polymorphisms and RA risk. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using fixed- and random-effect models. In total, 1854 cases and 1689 controls from 12 studies and 1525 cases and 1455 controls from 10 studies were included for the C677T and A1298C polymorphisms, respectively. Pooled results indicated that both C677T and A1298C polymorphisms were associated with RA susceptibility (C677T: TT vs. CC, OR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.02-1.67, P = 0.032; TC vs. CC, OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.02-1.70, P = 0.032; TT + TC vs. CC, OR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.07-1.78, P = 0.014; T vs. C, OR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.06-1.57, P = 0.011; A1298C: CC vs. CA + AA: OR = 1.58, 95% CI = 1.20-2.06, P = 0.001). Further stratification based on ethnicity and geographic region indicated an association between the MTHFR C677T SNP and the risk of RA in Caucasian and patients in Africa. However, there is no evidence of significant association between A1298C polymorphism and RA risk in Caucasian or population in Africa. This meta-analysis indicates that MTHFR C677T and A1298C polymorphisms could be predictors of risk of RA and warrants validation in large and well-designed prospective studies.

An invisible soil acidification: Critical role of soil carbonate and its impact on heavy metal bioavailability.

It is well known that carbonates inhibit heavy metals transferring from soil to plants, yet the mechanism is poorly understood. Based on the Yangtze River delta area, we investigated bioaccumulation of Ni and Cd in winter wheat as affected by the presence of carbonates in soil. This study aimed to determine the mechanism through which soil carbonates restrict transport and plant uptake of heavy metals in the wheat cropping system. The results indicate that soil carbonates critically influenced heavy metal transfer from soil to plants and presented a tipping point. Wheat grains harvested from carbonates-depleted (due to severe leaching) soils showed Ni and Cd concentrations 2-3 times higher than those of the wheat grains from carbonates-containing soils. Correspondingly, the incidence of Ni or Cd contamination in the wheat grain samples increased by about three times. With the carbonate concentration >1% in soil, uptake and bioaccumulation of Ni and Cd by winter wheat was independent with the soil pH and carbonate content. The findings suggest that soil carbonates play a critical role in heavy metal transfer from soil to plants, implying that monitoring soil carbonate may be necessary in addition to soil pH for the evaluating soil quality and food safety.

Expression of transcription factor FOXC2 in cervical cancer and effects of silencing on cervical cancer cell proliferation.

OBJECTIVE: Forkhead box C2 (FOXC2) is a member of the winged helix/forkhead box (Fox) family of transcription factors. It has been suggested to regulate tumor vasculature, growth, invasion and metastasis, although it has not been studied in cervical cancer. Here, we analyzed FOXC2 expression in cervical tissues corresponding to different stages of cervical cancer development and examined its correlation with clinicopathological characteristics. In addition, we examined the effects of targeting FOXC2 on the biological behavior of human cervical cancer cells. METHODS: The expression of FOXC2 in normal human cervix, CIN I-III and cervical cancer was examined by immunohistochemistry and compared among the three groups and between cervical cancers with different pathological subtypes. Endogenous expression of FOXC2 was transiently knocked down in human Hela and SiHa cervical cells by siRNA, and cell viability and migration were examined by scratch and CCK8 assays, respectively. RESULTS: In normal cervical tissue the frequency of positive staining was 25% (10/40 cases), with a staining intensity (PI) of 0.297 ± 0.520, in CIN was 65% (26/40 cases), with a PI of 3.00 ± 3.29, and in cancer was 91.8% (68/74 cases), with a PI of 5.568 ± 3.449. The frequency was 100% in adenocarcinoma (5/5 cases) and 91.3% in SCCs (63/69 cases). The FOXC2 positive expression rate was 88.5% in patients with cervical SCC stage I and 100% in stage II, showing significant differences compared with normal cervix and CIN. With age, pathologic differentiation degree and tumor size, FOXC2 expression showed no significant variation. On transient transfection of Hela and SiHa cells, FOXC2-siRNA inhibition rates were 76.2% and 75.7%; CCK8 results showed reduced proliferation and relative migration (in Hela cells from 64.5 ± 3.16 to 49.5 ± 9.24 and in SiHa cells from 60.1 ± 3.05 to 44.3 ± 3.98) (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: FOXC2 gene expression increases with malignancy, especially with blood vessel hyperplasia and invasion degree. Targeted silencing was associated with reduced cell proliferation as well as invasion potential.