临床发现食管癌患者多半发生食管癌淋巴结转移，导致患者术后生存率较差，但食管癌淋巴结转移机制不清楚。研究表明，体细胞融合能够促进肿瘤的侵袭转移。前期研究中，我们通过比较基因组杂交技术从术后淋巴结转移和非转移的食管鳞癌细胞中，发现KIAA1377分子在淋巴结转移灶癌细胞中显著性地扩增，提示该分子在食管癌淋巴结转移过程中具有一定的作用，但其具体的分子机制未知。本研究拟围绕"KIAA1377过表达促进了食管癌细胞和巨噬细胞的融合，进而促进食管癌的淋巴结转移"这一科学假说，拟从体外细胞系，体内裸鼠实验和临床组织标本3个水平上，运用多种分子生物与生物化学实验技术手段探讨KIAA1377分子在食管癌细胞和组织细胞融合中的作用，阐明KIAA1377在食管癌淋巴结转移中作用的分子机制，为食管癌淋巴结转移的临床管理和治疗提供新的思路和理论依据。

It was clinically observed that the majority of patients with Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC) whose tumors have often been metastasized with lymph nodes.however, the molecular mechasnism underlying lymph node metastasis has been largely unkown. It has been reported that somatic cell fusion can promote the invasion and metastasis of hybridoma.In our previous works, it has been found using CGH approach that KIAA 1377 was pronounced amplified in esophageal cancer cell metastasized with lymphnodes, implying that KIAA 1377 may play a key role in the lymph node metastasis of ESCC.the molecular mechanism underlying, however, has been unknown. In the present study, it is proposed to explore the role in the fusion of esophageal cancer cells with phygocytes using RNAi and overexpression on cell line level and to observe the ensuing invasion and migration variablity of hybrid ESCC cell line; it is proposed to analyze the subcellular localization and which domain of the peptide works using immunofluorescence and PCR-based site-directed mutagenesis; and to analyze the clinicpathological significance of amplification and expression of KIAA1377, using Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and Immunohistochemistry (IHC) on tissue level; xenografted nude mice were harnessed to analyze its migration ability in vivo under the help of microPET. Together, all the proposals presented here will elucidate the molecular mechanism of KIAA 1377 in the lymph node metastasis of ESCC,providing the new perspective and theoretical evidence for lymph node metastasis.