IL-11 activated by lnc-ATB promotes cell proliferation and invasion in esophageal squamous cell cancer

IL-11 exerts important functions involved in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. However, the underlying functional role of IL-11 in esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) is not well known. In this paper, we demonstrated that IL-11 expression was increased in esophageal cancer compared with normal tissues, whereas knockdown of IL-11 could inhibit the proliferation and invasion of Eca109 and KYSE410 ESCC cells. Besides, we found that the stability and expression of IL-11 was regulated by lnc-ATB in Eca109 and KYSE410 ESCC cells. More importantly, we found that knockdown of IL-11 partly abolished lnc-ATB-mediated the proliferation and invasion of Eca109 and KYSE410 ESCC cells. Collectively, these results indicated that IL-11 mediated by lnc-ATB increased the proliferation and invasion of ESCC cells, which may provide a promising therapeutic option for suppressing ESCC progression.