In the present study, we observed that BMP7 stimulates p38 MAPK in the cultured SCs (Fig. 3A,C), which is consistent with several previous studies showing that BMP7 activates p38 MAPK in brown pre-adipocyte, metastatic prostate cancer cells and human embryonic stem cells28, 36, 37. This evidence concerns the gene BMP7 and prostate cancer.