Expression Of FMNL2 In Esophageal Carcinoma And Its Biological Function In Vitro

Background Esophageal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of digestive system in China.According to pathological types,it can be divided into esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and esophageal adenocarcinoma.Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma accounts for more than 90% in China.Although the treatment technology for esophageal cancer has been improved it is difficult to find early esophageal cancer and the characteristics of recurrence and metastasis after operation are still the key factors affecting the prognosis of patients with esophageal cancer.Therefore,searching for molecular markers related to the progression of esophageal cancer,exploring the molecular mechanism related to the progression of esophageal cancer,and searching for possible molecular targeted drugs are currently the hot topics in the study of esophageal cancer.Objective To investigate the expression level of FMNL2 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma,and to analyze the relationship between the expression level and the prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients,and to study the biological function of FMNL2 at the cellular level by cytological experiments in vitro.Methods Immunohistochemistry was employed to detect the expression of FMNL2 in the EC tissues and adjacent tissues;Kaplan-Meier plots were used to analyse the relationship between the expression of FMNL2 and clinical prognosis.Univariate analysis and Multivariate analysis were performed by Cox proportional hazards models.The expression of FMNL2 in EC cells was detected by real-time PCR and western blot analysis.CCK8 analysis was performed to explore the EC cell viability, while Transwell assays were adopt to investigate the effects of FMNL2 on the cell invasion and migration.Results FMNL2 expression was significantly higher in EC tissues than in adjacent normal tissues.The results of Chi-square test showed that the expression level of FMNL2 was related to TNM stage.Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that the overall survival(OS)and disease-free survival(DFS)were significantly longer in the low FMNL2 expression groups than in the high FMNL2 expression group(p<0.05).Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that the expression of FMNL2 was an independent risk factor for OS.FMNL2 expression was upregulated in EC cells,compared the controls.FMNL2 knockdown significantly suppressed the proliferation,invasion and migration of EC cells(p<0.05).Conclusion FMNL2 was overexpressed in EC tissues and cells,and patients with high expression of FMNL2 suggest shorter OS and DFS.In vitro experiments suggested FMNL2 promoted the tumor proliferation,invasion and migration.All these data indicated that FMNL2 might serve as a potential therapeutic target against EC.