Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors�� contributions HS conceived of and carried out experiments, analysed and interpreted data and drafted the manuscript; BX and JG conceived of experiments, analysed and interpreted data and wrote Tenatoprazole? the manuscript; WS, GY, XD, ZL, SZ, TX, YX analysed and interpreted data. All authors read and approval the final manuscript. Acknowledgements This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81171660), Natural Science Foundation of Ningbo (No. 2012A610207), the Scientific Innovation Team Project of Ningbo (No. 2011B82014), the Project of Key Disciplines in Ningbo (No. XKL11D2127 and No. XKL11D2128), the Outstanding (Postgraduate) Dissertation Growth Foundation of Ningbo University (No.

PY2012004), The Postgraduate Innovation Projects of Zhejiang Province (No. YK2011050), and The K. C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University.
Esophageal cancer is one of the most aggressive malignant tumors of the digestive tract. Post-esophagectomy anastomotic leak and pneumonia are common and can lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a diffuse heterogeneous lung disease resulting in progressive hypoxemia due to ventilation/perfusion mismatching and intrapulmonary shunting. Its causes are diverse and it is associated with a near 100% mortality after 48 hours [1,2]. Ventilator-induced acute lung injury (ALI) is known to cause diffuse parenchymal damage secondary to alveolar overdistension, Brefeldin_A bacterial translocation and cytokine release [3,4]. Detailed, sequential assessment of organ dysfunction during the first 48 hours of ICU admission is a reliable indicator of prognosis [5].