Affiliations: Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Hongxia Zhu, Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 17 Panjiayuan Nanli, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100021, China. Tel.: +86 10 87788487; Fax: +86 10 67738220; E-mail:drhxzhu@cicams.ac.cn
Abstract: BACKGROUND: p21-activated kinase 7 is a member of the group II
p21-activated kinase (PAK) family which is known to play important role in
tumorigenesis and metastasis. However, the expression of p21-activated
kinase 7 in esophageal squamous cell cancers and the correlation with
clinical parameters has never been investigated. OBJECTIVE: To explore the role of p21-activated kinase 7 in esophageal squamous cell
cancers. METHODS: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma samples were
collected and the expression of p21-activated kinase 7 was detected by
immunohistochemistry. In vitro cell invasion assay was employed in EC9706
cells and EC9706PAK7 cells. Metastasis related genes were evaluated by
Real-time PCR and Western Blot. RESULTS: In 85 samples, 44 (51.8%) samples showed strong expression and expression of PAK7 was
significantly correlated with lymph node stage (p= 0.013) and TNM
stage (p= 0.041). In vitro invasion assay showed that the invasion ability of
EC9706 PAK7 cells increased 2.5 folds compared with EC9706 cells. PAK7 could
enhance the protein levels of Vimentin and MMP10, but reduce E-cadherin,
TIMP1 and TIMP2. CONCLUSION: PAK7 is overexpressed in human
esophageal squamous cell cancer samples and correlated with lymph node
metastasis.
