Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the role and mechanism of tumor necrosis factor receptor-related protein 1(TRAP1)in the progression of human esophageal cancer. Methods Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of TRAP1 and S100A8 in human esophageal cancer tissues.A stably knocked-down TRAP1 cell line was established in the esophageal cancer KYSE150 cell line, the proliferation ability was detected by CCK-8, the transfer ability was detected by Transwell, and apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry.We conducted a gene profiling study to detect the expression of genes related to tumor progression.The expression of TRAP1 downstream genes-E-Cadherin, N-Cadherin and S100A8 was detected by Real-Time fluorescent quantitative PCR. Results The expression of TRAP1 in esophageal carcinoma was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues and correlated with S100A8(χ²=4.141, P＜0.001).The KYSE150 cell line with down-regulated of TRAP1(KYSE150-TRAP1)was established, and the expression of TRAP1 was down-regulated by 85%, cell invaded ability was decreased by 46%, no changes of cell proliferation and apoptosis were observed, when compared to the KYSE150 control cells.The expression level of E-cadherin was increased by 19%, and the expression level of S100A8 was decreased by 39% in KYSE150-TRAP1 cells. Conclusion TRAP1 is overexpressed in esophageal carcinoma and promotes the metastasis of esophageal carcinoma by regulating S100A8 expression.

Key words: Esophageal cancer, TRAP1, S100A8, Metastasis