Abstract 62: HIC1 inhibits cells metastasis via epithelial-mesenchymal transition in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Invasion and metastasis are the main causes of death in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been reported to be closely related with tumor metastasis. Although HIC1 (hypermethylated in cancer 1) gene has been observed to be epigenetically modified in many cancers, its intrinsic role and mechanism in ESCC metastasis, especially in EMT, remains unclear. Our previous study showed that hypermethylation of the HIC1 promoter markedly elevated in metastatic ESCC tissues compared with primary and adjacent normal tissues and it was associated with poor patients’ survival. In the present study, we used immunohistochemistry (IHC) to detect the expression of HIC1 in ESCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues, and the results showed that HIC1 was down-expressed in ESCC tissues and overexpressed in adjacent normal tissues. Results from trans-well-migration and wound healing experiments showed that overexpression of HIC1 in ESCC cells (KYSE 30) can reduce cell migration and metastasis behavior. Moreover, Western blot showed that overexpression of HIC1 could down-regulate EphA2 expression, simultaneously induced the markers of EMT target changed, in which E-cadherin was observed up-regulated, Snail and Vimentin were down-regulated. In summary, our results suggests that HIC1 may regulate EphA2-SirT1-P53 signaling pathway to mitigate ESCC aggressiveness. Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Beibei Sha, Ping Chen, Xingge Liu, Xuanyu Hu, Miaomiao Li, Pei Li. HIC1 inhibits cells metastasis via epithelial-mesenchymal transition in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 62.