HK2 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: To understand the distribution and localization of miR-143 in esophageal neoplasia in relation to localization of its target HK2 protein and the level of cell proliferation, we performed in situ hybridization (ISH) and immunohistochemical staining (IHC) on near serial sections of rat esophageal tissues (n = 10 rats/group), as well as in the archived human ESCC tissues for which we previously reported overexpression of miR-31, -21, -223 [27, 28].