Prognostic Significance of PFKFB3 in Esophageal Cancer and Its Influence on Macrophage Polarization
YANG Zihan
SHI Haolin
SUN Jiachun
Abstract：Objective To investigate the expression and prognostic effects of PFKFB3 in Esophageal Cancer(EC)and the relationship between PFKFB3 and tumor-related immune cellswithin the tumor microenvironment.Methods Multiple canceromics databases were used to analyze the expression of PFKFB3 in EC and the impact of PFKFB3 on the prognosis of EC patients was evaluated.The correlation between PFKFB3 expression and various immune cells was explored with immune infiltration analysis.The effect of PFKFB3 knockdown in EC cells on macrophage polarization was studied through in vitro experiments.Results This study found that PFKFB3 is highly expressed in EC,and patients with high PFKFB3 expression have poor prognosis.Moreover,the expression level of PFKFB3 is closely related to the extent of M2 macrophage infiltration.Importantly,the conditioned medium from EC cells with silenced PFKFB3 reduced the induced differentiation of M0 macrophages into M2 macrophages.Conclusion PFKFB3 is a key metabolic gene of EC,influences the differentiation of M2 macrophages in the tumor immune microenvironment,which could serve as a potential therapeutic target for EC.
Keywords：esophageal carcinomaPFKFB3M2 macrophagesmetabolismprognosis
Publication Date：2025-09-25
Online Publishing Date：2026-09-12(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 167-172 )