Identifying a confused cell identity for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Signal Transduct Target Ther

Department of Gastroenterology, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Published: April 2022

The cell identity of malignant cells and how they acquire it are fundamental for our understanding of cancer. Here, we report that esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells display molecular features equally similar but distinct to all three types of normal esophageal epithelial cells, which we term as confused cell identity (CCI). CCI is an independent prognostic marker associated with poor prognosis in ESCC. Further, we identify tropomyosin 4 (TPM4) as a critical CCI gene that promotes the aggressiveness of ESCC in vitro and in vivo. And TPM4 creates CCI through activating the Jak/STAT-SOX2 pathway. Thus, our study suggests an unrecognized feature of ESCC cells, which might be of value for clinic prognosis and potential interference.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9008022PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41392-022-00946-8DOI Listing

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