Overexpression of CHD1L is associated with poor survival and aggressive tumor biology in esophageal carcinoma.

// Ze-Han Liu 1, * , Qi Zhang 2, 3, * , Yi-Jie Ding 4, * , Ying-Hui Ren 3 , Hui-Peng Yang 3 , Qing Xi 3 , Ying-Nan Cheng 3 , Guo-Lin Miao 3 , Hong-Kun Liu 3 , Cai-Xia Li 2 , Wen-Qiang Yan 5 , Yan Li 3 , Zhenyi Xue 3 , Lijuan Zhang 3 , Xin-Ye Li 6 , Chen-Long Zhao 6 , Yurong Da 3 , Xian-Zhong Wu 2 , Jun-Qiang Chen 7 , Rongxin Zhang 8, 3 and Zhi-Gang Li 9, 6, 2 1 Nankai Clinical College, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, P.R. China 2 Institute of Integrative Medicine Therapy for Acute Abdominal Diseases of Tianjin, Nankai Hospital, Tianjin, P. R. China 3 Laboratory of Immunology and Inflammation, Department of Immunology, Key Laboratory of Immune Microenvironment and Diseases of Educational Ministry of China, Basic Medical College, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, P.R. China 4 First Central Clinical College, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, P.R. China 5 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Nankai Hospital, Nankai District, Tianjin, P. R. China 6 General Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, P.R. China 7 Department of Radiotherapy, Fujian Provincial Tumor Hospital, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, P.R. China 8 Laboratory of Immunology and Inflammation, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, P.R. China 9 Hainan Cancer Hospital, Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Hainan Medical College, Haikou City, P.R. China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Jun-Qiang Chen, email: junqiangc@163.com Rongxin Zhang, email: rongxinz@yahoo.com , rxzhang@tmu.edu.cn Zhi-Gang Li, email: zhigli38@hotmail.com Keywords: esophageal carcinoma, CHD1L protein, apoptosis, migration, prognosis Received: March 21, 2017      Accepted: June 04, 2017      Published: June 29, 2017 ABSTRACT Esophageal carcinoma (EC) is a malignancy with high metastatic potential. Chromosomal helicase/ATPase DNA binding protein 1-like (CHD1L) gene is a newly identified oncogene located at Chr1q21, and it is amplified in many solid tumors. However, the status of CHD1L protein expression in EC and its clinical significance is uncertain. This study was designed to investigate the significance of CHD1L expression in human EC and its biological function in EC cells. The expression of CHD1L was examined by immunohistochemistry in 191 surgically resected ECs. The associations between CHD1L expression and clinical pathological parameters and the prognostic value of CHD1L were analyzed. Western blot analysis showed that CHD1L was overexpressed in EC cell lines. In addition, positive CHD1L expression was strongly related to advanced clinical stage ( P <0.01), and lymph node metastasis ( P <0.01) of EC. The Kaplan-Meier curve indicated that high expression of CHD1L may result in poor prognosis of EC patients ( P <0.01), and multivariate analysis showed that CHD1L overexpression was an independent predictor of overall survival. Furthermore, suppression of CHD1L in EC cells increased apoptosis and decreased cell proliferation invasion ability. Our results suggest that CHD1L is a target oncogene with the potential to serve as a novel prognostic biomarker in EC pathogenesis.