Biological and Clinicopathological Significance of Cripto-1 Expression in the Progression of Human ESCC

Background: human cripto-1, a member of the egf-cfc family, is involved in embryonic development, embryonic stem cell maintenance, and tumor progression. it also participates in multiple cell signaling pathways including wnt, notch, and tgf-β. remarkably, it is expressed in cancer stem cell (csc) compartments, boosting tumor cell migration, invasion, and angiogenesis. although cripto-1 is overexpressed in a variety of human malignant tumors, its expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (escc) remains unclear. our aim in this study was to evaluate the possible oncogenic role of cripto-1 in escc progression and elucidate its association with clinicopathological parameters in patients. methods: in this study, cripto-1 expression in 50 escc tissue samples was analyzed and compared to corresponding margin-normal esophageal tissues using quantitative real-time pcr. results: cripto-1 was overexpressed in nearly 40% of escc samples compared with normal tissue samples. significant correlations were observed between cripto-1 expression and tumor differentiation grade, progression stage, and location (p < 0.05). conclusions: our results indicate that overexpression of cripto-1 is involved in the development of escc. further assessment will be necessary to determine the role of cripto-1 cross talk in escc tumorigenesis.