Acacetin restrains the malignancy of esophageal squamous carcinoma cells via regulating JAK2/STAT3 pathway

Abstract Acacetin is a natural flavonoid compound found in diverse plants, which has strong anti‐inflammatory and anti‐cancer activities. This work aimed at investigating how acacetin functions on esophageal squamous carcinoma cells. In this work, esophageal squamous carcinoma cell lines were subjected to increasing doses of acacetin, and the proliferative, migrative, invasive and apoptotic phenotypes were evaluated by a series of in vitro experiments. Genes related to acacetin and esophageal cancer were predicted by bioinformatics analysis. The levels of apoptosis‐relevant proteins and JAK2/STAT3 pathway‐relevant proteins in esophageal squamous carcinoma cells were probed by Western blot. It was revealed that acacetin could block the growth and aggressiveness of TE‐1 and TE‐10 cells and promote the apoptosis. Acacetin treatment induced bax's expression and repressed bcl‐2's expression. Notably, acacetin inhibits JAK2/STAT3 pathway in esophageal squamous carcinoma cells. In summary, acacetin inhibits the malignant progression of esophageal squamous carcinoma via restraining JAK2/STAT3 signaling.