S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase (SAHH) is the sole enzyme that catalyses the hydrolysis of S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) in methylation reaction. Previous studies have shown that its inhibition or deficiency leads to several human disorders such as severe coagulopathy, hepatopathy and myopathy. However, the effects of SAHH on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells have not been explored so far. To determine whether SAHH is involved in carcinogenesis of the esophagus, we investigated the expression of SAHH in ESCC and normal esophageal epithelial cells and found that SAHH was downregulated in ESCC cells compared with normal esophageal epithelial cells (P < 0.05). The overexpressed SAHH in ESCC cells promoted cell apoptosis, inhibited cell migration and adhesion, but did not affect the cell proliferation and cell cycle. Furthermore, an interaction of SAHH with receptor of activated C kinase 1 (RACK1) protein was detected by coimmunoprecipitation and an increased RACK1, which is caused by overexpression of SAHH, was verified by Western blotting. The findings mentioned above demonstrate that SAHH can promote apoptosis, inhibit migration and adhesion of ESCC cells suggesting that it may be involved in carcinogenesis of the esophagus.