Pin1 positively affects tumorigenesis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and correlates with poor survival of patients

Background: pin1 promotes oncogenesis by regulating multiple oncogenic signaling. in this study,we investigated the involvement of pin1 in tumor progression and in the prognosis of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (escc).results: we observed that proliferation,clonogenicity and tumorigenesis of ce81t cells were inhibited by pin1 knockdown. we next analyzed pin1 expression in clinical escc specimens. when compared to the corresponding non-tumor part,pin1 protein and mrna levels in tumor part were higher in 84% and 62% patients,respectively. by immunohistochemistry,we identified that high pin1 expression was associated with higher primary tumor stage (p = 0.035),higher overall cancer stage (p = 0.047) and poor overall survival (p < 0.001). furthermore,the association between expression of pin1 and levels of β-catenin and cyclin d in cell line and clinical specimens was evaluated. β-catenin and cyclin d1 were decreased in ce81t cells with pin1 knockdown. cyclin d1 level correlated with pin1 expression in clinical escc specimens.conclusions: pin1 upregulation was associated with advanced stage and poor prognosis of escc. pin1 knockdown inhibited aggressiveness of escc cells. β-catenin and cyclin d1 were positively regulated by pin1. these results indicated that targeting pin1 pathway could represent a potential modality for treating escc. © 2014 lin et al.