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Increasing evidence has demonstrated that histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) participates in the regulation of a variety of biological processes in numerous tumors. However, the potential role of HDAC2 in the development and progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains elusive. Immunohistochemistry was utilized to detect the expression of HDAC2, Cell Counting Kit-8 was used to determine the cell proliferation, and flow cytometry was employed to investigate cell cycle and cell apoptosis. Finally, western blotting was employed to detect the protein expression of cyclin D1, p21, B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) and Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax). The present study found that expression of HDAC2 protein in ESCC tissues was significantly increased compared with atypical hyperplasia tissues and normal esophageal mucosa (P<0.001). The expression of HDAC2 was not associated with the age or gender of patients (P>0.05), but was closely associated with the histological grade, invasion depth, tumor-node-metastasis stage and lymph node metastasis, respectively (all P<0.001). HDAC2 small interfering RNA effectively downregulated the expression of HDAC2 protein in ESCC EC9706 cells. Downregulation of HDAC2 expression evidently inhibited cell proliferation, arrested cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase and induced cell apoptosis in ESCC EC9706 cells, coupled with increased expression of p21 and Bax proteins and decreased expression of cyclin D1 and Bcl-2 proteins. Overall, the present findings suggest that HDAC2 may play an important role in the development and progression of ESCC and be considered as a novel molecular target for the treatment of ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]