Assessment of Early Growth Response 1 in Tumor Suppression of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Yen-Chiang Tseng; Chih-Wen Shu; Hui-Min Chang; Yi-Hsuan Lin; Yen-Han Tseng; Han-Shui Hsu; Yih-Gang Goan; Ching-Jiunn Tseng

doi:10.3390/jcm11195792

Assessment of Early Growth Response 1 in Tumor Suppression of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

J Clin Med. 2022 Sep 29;11(19):5792. doi: 10.3390/jcm11195792.

Authors

Yen-Chiang Tseng^{1

2

3}, Chih-Wen Shu^{4

5}, Hui-Min Chang⁶, Yi-Hsuan Lin^{7

8}, Yen-Han Tseng^{9

10}, Han-Shui Hsu^{3

10

11}, Yih-Gang Goan^{1

10}, Ching-Jiunn Tseng^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung 813414, Taiwan.
² Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
³ Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
⁴ Institute of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Biomedical Science and Environmental Biology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Medical Education and Research, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung 813414, Taiwan.
⁷ Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Public Health, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100, Taiwan.
⁹ Department of Chest Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
¹⁰ School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
¹¹ Institute of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan.

Abstract

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is associated with poor survival despite surgical resection, and its pathogenesis has been broadly investigated in the past decade. Early growth response 1 (EGR-1) could involve regulating tumor development in ESCC cells. Methods: An attempt was made to examine the molecular and cellular influence of EGR-1 in esophageal cancer cells by RNA extraction, real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), cell culture, small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown, western blot, migration assay, and cell viability assay. One hundred and forty-four samples of ESCC were collected from our hospital and analyzed. Significantly higher EGR-1 expression was noted in tumor-adjacent normal tissue compared with tumor lesions. Results: The univariate analysis showed no significant impacts of EGR-1 expression on patients’ survival. However, after adjusting for the pathological stage, patients with EGR-1 expression > 68th percentile had lower risks of cancer-related death. Moreover, knockdown of EGR-1 significantly enhanced cell migration, invasion, and resistance to chemotherapeutic agents in two ESCC cell lines. Conclusions: EGR-1 plays a key role in tumor suppression involving tumor viability suppression and reflects the treatment effect of current chemotherapy for ESCC.

Keywords: EGR-1; esophageal carcinoma; tumor suppression.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Grant Number: VGHKS107-064). The budget did not impact study design, data collection, data interpretation, or manuscript writing.