ESR1 and exstrophy-epispadias complex: Since EEC accounts for more than 80% of the newly diagnosed UCEC cases, in general, which is ERα positive (17, 18), estrogens control a series of genes involved in proliferation mainly mediated by ERα (15, 19); our results also identified that knockdown of LMTK3 in Ishikawa can inhibit cell growth and ERα expression, which may provide a new drug target for the fertility preserving therapy of EEC with a high expression of ERα and LMTK3 in the future.