Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 10 pp 9714—9725
Qigesan inhibits esophageal cancer cell invasion and migration by inhibiting Gas6/Axl-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition
- 1 College of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050017, Hebei, China
- 2 Department of Clinical Laboratory, Tangshan Maternal and Children Hospital, Tangshan 063000, Hebei, China
- 3 Research Center, The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050011, Hebei, China
- 4 Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tumor Hospital of Hebei Province, The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050011, Hebei, China
Received: January 14, 2020 Accepted: March 31, 2020 Published: May 20, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103238How to Cite
Copyright © 2020 Kong et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Qigesan (QGS) has been used to effectively treat esophageal cancer (EC) for decades in China, but the mechanism by which it suppresses EC metastasis remains unknown. In this study, we examined the effects of QGS on EC cell mobility. Using immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence, expression of Gas6 and Axl, which promote tumor cell migration and invasion, was examined in carcinoma tissues and adjacent normal tissues from EC patients. Levels of Gas6, Axl, and the Gas6/Axl complex were also examined in ECA109 and TE13 EC cells treated with QGS. In addition, immunofluorescent staining and quantitative protein analysis were used to examine E-cadherin, N-cadherin, and Snail levels in ECA109 and TE13 EC cells after QSG administration, and cell mobility was assessed. The results demonstrated that levels of Gas6 and Axl expression are higher in EC tissues than in adjacent normal tissues. Moreover, QGS decreased Gas6/Axl levels, increased E-cadherin expression, decreased Snail and N-cadherin expression, and inhibited epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in EC cells. QGS thus suppresses EMT in EC by inhibiting Gas6/Axl binding.