Twist1 causes the transcriptional repression of claudin-4 with prognostic significance in esophageal cancer

Abstract Twist1 is a transcription factor that is involved in epithelial–mesenchymal transition by suppressing intercellular adhesion. In this study, we aimed to determine the role of Twist1 in the regulation of claudin-4 expression and investigate its specific mechanisms and clinical implications using human esophageal carcinoma cell lines and tissues. As a result, up-regulation of Twist1 decreased both gene and protein expression levels of endogenous claudin-4 and the suppression was mediated by direct binding of Twist1 to the canonical E-box in the promoter region of claudin-4. In addition, there was a significant inverse correlation of claudin-4 with Twist1 in esophageal cancer tissues. High Twist1 and low claudin-4 expression was associated with the poorest prognosis and was more highly correlated with adverse outcome than any other subgroup with statistical significance ( p  = 0.001). Our results indicate that Twist1 induces the repression of claudin-4 expression during the epithelial–mesenchymal transition in esophageal carcinoma.