Fig. 4

ESRRG inhibits the expression of key glycolytic enzyme PKM2 in ESCC cells. A A schematic diagram illustrates the regulation of glycolysis pathway. B Heatmap illustrates glycolysis related genes in transcript levels between TE1 cells with ESRRG overexpression and control. C The correlation between the relative levels of ESRRG and LDHA, PFKM, GPI, GAPDH, ENO1, PKM, TPI1, ALDOA mRNA transcripts in 82 ESCC tissues of TCGA database. D mRNA levels of 8 glycolysis-related genes in TE1 with ESRRG overexpression and ECa109 cells with ESRRG knockdown compared to relative control cells. E The correlation between the relative levels of ESRRG and PKM, determined by RT-PCR in 94 ESCC tissues. F Schematics of mutation strategies in the PKM promoter (− 2000 bp to + 50 bp). G Luciferase reporter assays exhibited that ESRRG bound to the PKM promoter at site 2 to induce its expression. H Effects of ESRRG overexpression and knockdown on PKM2 expression in ESCC cells. Immunohistochemistry (I) and Western blotting (J) for PKM2 protein level in xenograft tumor of mice after overexpression or knockout of ESRRG. Values are presented as mean ± SD (n = 3). *P < 0.05 or **P < 0.01 indicates significant differences from the vehicle group as assessed by a one-way ANOVA with a post hoc Dunnett’s test