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A potential molecular target for biotherapy esophageal squamous cell carcinomas

February 19, 2009

The cadherin superfamily has a correlate relationship with the invasion and metastasis of carcinoma. It has been suggested that, unlike E-cadherin, N-cadherin may promote motility and invasion in carcinoma cells. To explore clinical pathological significance of E-cadherin and N-cadherin expressions in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), a research team led by Prof. Qing-Xia Fan from China detected the expression of E-cadherin and N-cadherin in 62 cases of normal esophageal epithelium, 31 cases of adjacent atypical hyperplasia epithelium and 62 cases of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Their study will be published on February 14, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

They found that the positive rates of N-cadherin decreased in the carcinoma, adjacent atypical hyperplastic and normal esophageal tissues (75.8%, 61.3% and 29.0%, P < 0.05), respectively, while those of E-cadherin increased (40.3%, 71.0% and 95.2%, P < 0.05). The increased expression of N-cadherin and decreased expression of E-cadherin were related to invasion, differentiation, and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). The expression level of N-cadherin decreased in the N-cadherin knocked down cells, and the invasiveness of those cells decreased significantly as well. The number of cells which crossed the basement membrane filter decreased from 123.40 ± 8.23 to 49.60 ± 6.80 (P < 0.05).

The results indicated that E-cadherin and N-cadherin expression is correlated with the invasion and aggravation of ESCC. The down-regulation of N-cadherin lowers the invasiveness of EC9706 cell line.

Reference: Li K, He W, Lin N, Wang X, Fan QX. N-cadherin knock-down decreases invasiveness of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in vitro. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(6): 697-704 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/697.asp

World Journal of Gastroenterology