Identification of novel nuclear pore complex associated proteins in esophageal carcinoma by an integrated bioinformatics analysis

Nucleoporins (NUPs) are components of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) that participate in the nucleocytoplasmic transport of macromolecules as well as in many essential processes that may be led to carcinogenesis. We selected three expression profile microarray datasets from GEO and as well as TCGA data to identify differentially expressed NUPs genes in esophageal carcinoma. Our findings indicated that NUP133, NUP37, NUP43, NUP50, GLE1 and NDC1 are overexpressed in esophageal carcinoma, among which NUP50 and GLE1genes are reported for the first time in esophageal carcinoma. All identified NUPs were also associated with distant metastasis.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.