Expression and clinical role of NF45 as a novel cell cycle protein in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

[esophageal squamous cell carcinoma]

NF 45 (also known as ILF 2 ), as one subunit of NF-AT (nuclear factor of activated T cells ), repairs DNA breaks , inhibits viral replication , and also functions as a negative regulator in the microRNA processing pathway in combination with NF 90 . Recently , it was found that implicated in the mitotic control of HeLa cells and deletion of endogenous NF 45 decreases growth of HeLa cells . While the role of NF 45 in cancer biology remains under debate . In this study , we analyzed the expression and clinical significance of NF 45 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma ESCC . The expression of NF 45 was evaluated by Western blot in 8 paired fresh ESCC tissues and immunohistochemistry on 105 paraffin-embedded slices . NF 45 was highly expressed in ESCC and significantly associated with ESCC cells tumor stage and Ki-67 . Besides , high NF 45 expression was an independent prognostic factor for ESCC patients ' poor survival . To determine whether NF 45 could regulate the proliferation of ESCC cells , we increased endogenous NF 45 and analyzed the proliferation of TE 1 ESCC cells using Western blot , CCK 8 , flow cytometry assays and colony formation analyses , which together indicated that overexpression of NF 45 favors cell cycle progress of TE 1 ESCC cells . While knockdown of NF 45 resulted in cell cycle arrest at G 0 /G 1 -phase and thus abolished the cell growth . These findings suggested that NF 45 might play an important role in promoting the tumorigenesis of ESCC , and thus be a promising therapeutic target to prevent ESCC progression .