Rho GAPase protein 1 (RACGAP1) affects the proliferation and metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells by regulating signaling pathways: Thermal infrared medical image inspection

Yu-Hao Zhu; Jia-Cheng Lin; Xiao-Bing Lin; Wei-Yuan Lai; Jin-Dong Yu; Lin Long

doi:10.1016/j.jtherbio.2025.104178

Rho GAPase protein 1 (RACGAP1) affects the proliferation and metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells by regulating signaling pathways: Thermal infrared medical image inspection

J Therm Biol. 2025 Jun 19:131:104178. doi: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2025.104178. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yu-Hao Zhu¹, Jia-Cheng Lin¹, Xiao-Bing Lin¹, Wei-Yuan Lai¹, Jin-Dong Yu¹, Lin Long²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China; The Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for High Cancer Incidence Coastal Chaoshan Area, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China.
² Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China; The Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for High Cancer Incidence Coastal Chaoshan Area, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China; Institute of Basic Medical Science, Cancer Research Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China; Institute of Oncologic Pathology, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China. Electronic address: longteast@sina.com.

PMID: 40561732
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2025.104178

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of RACGAP1 on the proliferation and metastasis of esophageal squamous cell cancer cells by regulating the signaling pathway, and to evaluate the potential value of RACGAP1 in tumor diagnosis and treatment through thermal infrared medical examination. To investigate the expression level of RACGAP1 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and normal esophageal tissues by immunohistochemistry, and analyze the relationship between RACGAP1 expression and tumor stage, differentiation degree and prognosis of patients. The tumor cells with different expression levels of RACGAP1 were analyzed by thermal imaging with thermal infrared medical examination technique to evaluate the application value of RACGAP1 in tumor diagnosis. In vitro experiments showed that down-regulation of RACGAP1 inhibited the proliferation and migration of esophageal squamous cell cancer cells. Further molecular mechanism studies revealed that RACGAP1 affects cytoskeleton recombination and extracellular matrix degradation by regulating Rho/ROCK signaling pathway, thus promoting tumor cell proliferation and metastasis. The application of thermal infrared medical examination technology showed that tumor cells with high expression of RACGAP1 showed higher temperature in thermal imaging, suggesting that RACGAP1 may be a potential marker in thermal infrared medical examination.

Keywords: Cell proliferation and metastasis; Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; Regulating signal path; Rho-GAPase protein 1 (RACGAP1); Thermal infrared medical examination.