Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Nov 15, 2021; 13(11): 1755-1765
Published online Nov 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i11.1755
Effects of dietary zinc deficiency on esophageal squamous cell proliferation and the mechanisms involved
Yao Chen, Fang-Xun Liu, Hong Liu
Yao Chen, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Peking University International Hospital, Beijing 102206, China
Fang-Xun Liu, International Medical Center, Peking University International Hospital, Beijing 102206, China
Hong Liu, Department of Gastroenterology, Beijing Shijitan Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing 100038, China
Author contributions: Chen Y participated in experiments, analyzed data, and wrote the manuscript; Liu FX contributed to designing the study and analyzing the data with Liu H; Liu FX also participated in experiments; All authors gave their approval for the submission of the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Research Ethics Committee of Beijing Shijitan Hospital.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fang-Xun Liu, PhD, Attending Doctor, International Medical Center, Peking University International Hospital, No. 1 Life Park Road, Life Science Park of Zhongguancun, Changping District, Beijing 102206, China. lfx3627@163.com
Received: June 30, 2021
Peer-review started: June 30, 2021
First decision: July 18, 2021
Revised: July 30, 2021
Accepted: September 29, 2021
Article in press: September 29, 2021
Published online: November 15, 2021
Processing time: 135 Days and 1.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Dietary zinc deficiency has been shown to be associated with the development of esophageal cancer in humans, but the exact mechanism of action is not known. The aim of this study was to observe the effects of dietary zinc deficiency on esophageal squamous cell proliferation. In addition, we investigated the pathway of zinc deficiency-induced esophageal squamous cell proliferation by detecting the expression of five predictive biomarkers. The results of the study showed that zinc-deficient diet decreased the growth rate and promoted the proliferation of esophageal epithelial squamous cells in mice. The mechanism was related to the induced overexpression of cyclooxygenase-2, P38, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, and nuclear factor kappa B (p105 and p65), and zinc replenishment reduced the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen, nuclear factor kappa B p105, and cyclooxygenase-2, thereby reversing this process.