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The expression and activation of ERK/MAPK pathway in human esophageal cancer cell line EC9706

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Abstract

While there have been more and more studies concerning mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) signaling pathways, which control many cellular complex programmes, such as cell proliferation, differentiation, cell death and embryogenesis. However, few studies are carried out about expression and activation of classical MAPKs, extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2 (ERK1/2) in human esophageal cancer cell line. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the expression and activation of ERK1/2 in human esophageal cancer cell line EC9706 and human normal esophageal epithelial cell line Heepic, which is as control. This study showed that ERK1/2 was transiently phosphorylated both in EC9706 and Heepic, the kinetics of which were slightly different. To further study the ERK/MAPK signaling pathway in EC9706 and Heepic cell line, U0126 a kind of specific inhibitor of MEK was used. This study showed that U0126 can block the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 in a short time, the complete inhibition concentration for EC9706 and Heepic cell line is 50 and 20 μM, respectively. Incidentally, to further investigate the different roles of ERK1 and ERK2, vector-based short hairpin interference vectors targeted on ERK1/2 was constructed. Moreover, the effective interference target sequence was screened out in a transient transfection manner. MTT experiment showed that ERK2 is more important than ERK1 in the proliferation of EC9706 cells.

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Abbreviations

ESCC:

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

MAPK:

Mitogen-activated protein kinase

ERK:

Extracellular-signal regulated kinase

SDS-PAGE:

Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

FBS:

Fetal bovine serum

PVDF:

Polyvinylidene fluoride

Heepic:

Human normal esophageal epithelial cell

p-ERK1/2:

Phosphorylated ERK1/2

MTT:

Methylthiazolyl blue tetrazolium

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Acknowledgements

The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (No. 30760223, 30860097) and the First Affiliated of Xinjiang Medical University Grant (No. 2008-YFY-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Research Center, the First Affiliated Hospital, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, 830054, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China

    Shu-Tao Zheng, Qi Huo, Aerziguli Tuerxun, Wen-Jing Ma, Guo-Dong Lv, Cong-Gai Huang, Qing Liu, Xing Wang, Ren-Yong Lin & Xiao-Mei Lu

  2. Department of Thoracic Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, 830054, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China

    Ilyar Sheyhidin

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  1. Shu-Tao Zheng
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  2. Qi Huo
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  4. Wen-Jing Ma
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  5. Guo-Dong Lv
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  10. Ilyar Sheyhidin
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Correspondence to Xiao-Mei Lu.

Additional information

S.T. Zheng and Q. Huo contributed equally to this work.

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Zheng, ST., Huo, Q., Tuerxun, A. et al. The expression and activation of ERK/MAPK pathway in human esophageal cancer cell line EC9706. Mol Biol Rep 38, 865–872 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-010-0178-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-010-0178-z

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