Fatty acid synthase expression and esophageal cancer.

Fatty acid synthase (FASN) overexpression has also been associated with a variety of human malignancies including tumor progression, aggressiveness, and metastasis. To investigate the role of FASN expression in esophageal cancer, we evaluated 60 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, 20 cases of adenocarcinoma, and 10 cases of normal esophageal tissues. We found that FASN was detected in 95 % human squamous cell carcinoma, and in 90 % human adenocarcinoma samples. However, all cases of normal esophageal epithelium did not express the protein of FASN. Further, to investigate the role of FASN in tumorigenesis and development, we analyze the growth and migration by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), colony formation and wound healing assay. We found that inhibition of FASN expression in TE13 cells by RNAi suppressed the growth of cells. Decreased FASN expression mitigated the migration of TE13 cells. These studies demonstrated the functional importance of FASN in esophageal tumorigenesis, and suggested that inhibiting FASN might be applied to treat esophageal cancer.