Gap Junction Protein 43 of Endometrial Cells and Its Roles

LIU Guo-lin

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-1889.2017.02.016

Abstract：Endometrium periodically changes during the menstrual cycle,which is regulated by the gap junction intercellular communication (GJIC) between the endometrial cells.The gap junction proteins of endometrial stromal cells are the the most important units of gap junction.Connexin 43 (Cx43),one of gap junction proteins,involves in many important cellular events such as cell growth,differentiation,tumorigenesis,neoangiogenesis,apoptosis,etc.The normal expression of Cx43 in the endometrial stromal cells is pivotal for the initiation and continuation of decidualization,which is related to endometrial receptivity.Cx43 also involves in the etiology of endometriosis and endometrial cancer.Because one of the bottlenecks for IVF treatment is the low implantation rate,it is important to elucidate the biological process of receptive endometria.Most importantly,the biomarkers for the receptive endometria are still unknown.In the review,we summarizes how Cx43 takes part in decidualization,its relations with the endonetrial receptivity,the signaling pathways of Cx43,how Cx43 changes in endometrial diseases,as well as the mechanism of Cx43 in forming/transforming receptive endometria.