Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jul 15, 2022; 14(7): 1239-1251
Published online Jul 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i7.1239
KIFC3 promotes proliferation, migration and invasion of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells by activating EMT and β-catenin signaling
Wei-Wei Hao, Feng Xu
Wei-Wei Hao, Feng Xu, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China
Author contributions: Hao WW designed and performed experiments, analyzed data, and wrote the article; Xu F conceived the study, analyzed the data, and revised the article; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at the First Hospital of Zhengzhou University (No. 2021-KY-0446-001).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal research procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University (No. 2021-KY-0446-001). All animal experiments were carried out in accordance with the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Feng Xu, MD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, No. 1 Jianshe East Road, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China. xufengmd@sina.com
Received: November 18, 2021
Peer-review started: November 18, 2021
First decision: January 12, 2022
Revised: January 26, 2022
Accepted: March 26, 2022
Article in press: March 26, 2022
Published online: July 15, 2022
Processing time: 236 Days and 15.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most dangerous malignancies affecting human health. However, the mechanism of ESCC is still unclear. We revealed that KIFC3 was upregulated in ESCC. In addition, overexpressed KIFC3 was associated with poor prognosis in ESCC patients. In vitro and in vivo experiments revealed that KIFC3 promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of ESCC cells by activating epithelial–mesenchymal transition and β-catenin signaling. Our study strongly suggests that KIFC3 may be a potential new therapeutic target for ESCC.