〔Abstract〕 Objective To investigate the effect of SOAT1 on proliferation, migration and invasion of esophageal cancer cells by down-regulating the expression of SOAT1 using RNA interference. Methods Firstly, the relative expression levels of SOAT1 protein and mRNA in esophageal cancer tissues and cell lines were detected using western blot and qRT-PCR assay, respectively. Next, after that SOAT1 was down-regulated in KYSE30 cells by RNA interference technique, the proliferation and apoptosis were detected by Cell Counting Kit-8 and flow cytometry respectively, and the expression of apoptosis-related proteins(cleaved PARP and cleaved caspase-3) were detected by western blot, and the cell migration and invasion were detected by scratch and transwell assay. Results The expression of SOAT1 protein and mRNA in esophageal cancer tissues was higher than that in adjacent normal tissues(allP<0.01), and the expression of SOAT1 protein and mRNA in esophageal cancer cell lines was also higher than that in normal esophageal epithelial cells(F=85.72,P<0.000 1). Knock-down of SOAT1 expression could weaken the proliferation ability of KYSE30 cells(t=10.73,P=0.000 4) and increase the percentage of apoptosis, and also weaken the migration(t=9.923,P=0.000 6) and invasion(t=3.357,P=0.028 4) ability of KYSE30 cells. Conclusion Knock-down of SOAT1 expression can suppress the proliferation and metastasis of esophageal carcinoma cells.