Overexpression of JAB1 promotes malignant behavior and predicts poor prognosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Background This study investigated the expression and biological function of JAB1 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods The expression of JAB1 in ESCC tissues and cells was measured using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunohistochemistry (IHC), and western blot analysis. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to explore the effect of JAB1 expression on the prognosis of ESCC patients. Furthermore, experiments were conducted in vivo and in vitro to determine the effect of JAB1 expression on the malignant behavior of ESCC cells. Results Compared with adjacent tissues, JAB1 was highly overexpressed in cancer tissues (P = 0.01). Univariate and multivariate analyses of clinical data indicated that patients with JAB1 overexpression had a worse prognosis (P = 0.001 and P = 0.049, respectively). Cell function experiments and tumorigenesis experiments in nude mice showed that the upregulation of JAB1 might promote malignant behavior, and vice versa. Conclusions Overexpression of JAB1 promoted the proliferation, migration, and invasion of ESCC cells, and was significantly associated with poor prognosis of ESCC patients. Therefore, JAB1 could be considered as a promising prognostic factor and a possible target for the specific therapy of ESCC. Key points In this study, we found that JAB1 was highly overexpressed in cancer tissues, which could influence the malignant behavior of ESCC cells, and was significantly associated with poor prognosis of ESCC patients.