The decreased migration and invasion abilities of ESCC cells, with upregulation of epithelial marker CDH1 and downregulation of VIM, CDH2, SNAIL1 and SLUG resulted from negative regulation by ZNF382, which was also reflected in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of ESCC cells. Here, CDH1 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.