Involvement of chromosome region maintenance 1 (CRM1) in the formation and progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Chromosome region maintenance 1 (CRM1) has been related to several malignancies. The predictive value of CRM1 in the malignance and prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), however, is not clear yet. In this study, we displayed that CRM1 expression was up-regulated in ESCC using immunohistochemistry and Western blot. Statistical analysis demonstrated that patients with high CRM1 levels indicated shorter survival period. We further found that silencing CRM1 caused apoptosis in ESCC cell lines. Moreover, knockdown of CRM1 disturbed the expression of tumor suppressor proteins and inhibited NF-κB activity in ESCC cell lines, especially if the cell line was treated with 5-fluorouracil. In consequence, our results for the first time indicated that CRM1 was dysregulated in ESCC, and suppression of CRM1 expression which resulted in inhibiting of NF-κB signaling might be developed into a new strategy in ESCC therapy.