Abstract: Objective To investigate galectin3 on proliferation and migration of esophageal cancer Eca109 cells. Methods A lentiviral vector for overexpression of RNA targeting galectin3 was designed to transfect Eca109 cancer cells following plasmidmediated transfection manual (Eca109/Gal3 cells). Inverted fluorescence microscope was used to observe the expression of EGFP. The proliferation of Eca109 cells was measured by cell counting Kit8 assay. Eca109 cells apoptosis was determined by AnnexinV/7AAD doublestaining. The migration capacity of Eca109 cells was determined in transwell assays. Western blot analysis was used to measure the expression of galectin3 protein. ResultsGalectin3 expression was detected in Eca109 cells, with the Galectin3 expression in Eca109/Gal3 cells much more than nontransfected cells (t=14.33， P＜0.05； t=10.28, P=0.037). Compared with nontransfected Eca109 cells, proliferation increased significantly in Eca109/Gal3 cells (t=-17.277， P＜0.05； t=-13.4， P＜0.05). Galectin3 evidently decreased in Eca109 cell apoptosis (t=3.053， P＜0.05; t=5.446, P＜0.05). Transwell migration assay showed that a greater number of Eca109/Gal3 cells crossed the artificial basement membrane compared with nontransfected Eca109 cells and negative control Eca109 cells (t=3.465, P＜0.05; t=3.252, P＜0.05). Conclusion Galectin3 expression is detected in transfected esophageal cancer Eca109 cells, whose overexpression can result in enhanced proliferation, migration, invasion as well as reduced apoptosis. These data indicate that indepth research of galectin3 may prove to be a potential molecular target for the treatment of esophageal cancer.

Key words: Esophageal neoplasms, Galectin 3, RNA over-expression, Biological function