title: Role of fascin in the proliferation and invasiveness of esophageal carcinoma cells.
abstract: Fascin, an actin-bundling protein, induces membrane protrusions and increases cell motility in various transformed cells. The overexpression of fascin in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has been described only recently, but the roles and mechanism still remained unclear. Here, by using RNA interference (RNAi), we have stably silenced the expression of the fascin in EC109 cells, an ESCC cell line. Down-regulation of fascin resulted in a suppression of cell proliferation and as well as a decrease in cell invasiveness. Furthermore, we revealed that fascin might have functions in regulating tumor growth in vivo. The effect of fascin on cell invasiveness correlated with the activation of matrix metalloproteases such as MMP-2 and MMP-9. We examined that fascin down-expression also led to a decrease of c-erbB-2 and beta-catenin at the protein level. These results suggested that fascin might play crucial roles in regulating neoplasm progression of ESCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical College of Shantou University, Shantou 515041, PR China.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: L Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: R Q
authors.initials: RQ
authors.lastname: Mai
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Z M
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Y D
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.forename: Z Y
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D015536:Down-Regulation; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D008840:Microfilament Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D034622:RNA Interference; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000378:metabolism; D051176:beta Catenin
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D015534:Trans-Activators; D051176:beta Catenin; C495270:CTNNB1 protein, human; C495267:CTNNB1 protein, mouse; C020324:fascin