Down-regulation of STAT3 induces the apoptosis and G1 cell cycle arrest in esophageal carcinoma ECA109 cells

Background Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is persistently activated in a wide variety of epithelial cancers. Aberrant activity of STAT3 correlates with tumor growth, invasion and metastasis, which makes it a potential therapeutic target of cancer. To explore the biological role of STAT3 in esophageal cancer, we used small hairpin RNA to knockdown the expression of the STAT3 gene in the esophageal carcinoma ECA109 cell line and the cell apoptosis, cell cycle and cell migration were investigated.