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Expression and significance of HIF-1α and HIF-2α in pancreatic cancer

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Abstract

The expression levels of hypoxia-inducible factor 1alpha (HIF-1α) and HIF-2α in pancreatic cancer (PC) and their association with clinicopathologic characteristics were investigated in order to elucidate their roles in the development of PC. HIF-1α and HIF-2α mRNA levels in 20 patients with PC were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The expression of HIF-1α and HIF-2α protein in samples from other 90 patients with PC was measured by immunohistochemistry. Correlations between the expression of HIF-1α or HIF-2α and clinicopathologica features and prognosis were analyzed. The expression of both HIF-1α and HIF-2α mRNA was up-regulated in most cancer tissues (P<0.05). HIF-1α staining was weakly positive in most cancer tissues and strongly positive in adjacent pancreas tissues (P<0.05). Clinicopathologic analysis revealed that relatively strong HIF-1α expression in cancer tissues was related to greater invasion (P<0.05), higher tumor pathologic stage (P<0.05), higher American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage (P<0.05) and shorter overall survival time (P<0.05). Conversely, HIF-2α staining was strongly positive in most cancer tissues and weakly positive in adjacent pancreas tissues. Clinicopathologic analysis revealed that relatively strong HIF-2α expression in cancer tissues was related to less invasion (P<0.05), lower tumor pathologic stage (P<0.05), lower AJCC stage (P<0.05) and longer overall survival time (P<0.05). Moreover, the HIF-1αhigh/HIF-2αlow group showed a shorter survival time than the HIF-1αlow/HIF-2αhigh group. In conclusion, although HIF-1α and HIF-2α mRNA expression patterns are the same, their protein expression patterns are significantly different and they play different roles in PC. Combined analysis of HIF-1α and HIF-2α expression might be useful to predict the prognosis of patients with PC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Min Wang  (王 敏) & Xing-jun Guo  (郭兴军)

  2. Department of Hepatic-biliary-pancreatic Surgery, Hubei Cancer Hospital, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Mei-yuan Chen  (陈美源) & Jian-xin Jiang  (江建新)

Authors
  1. Min Wang  (王 敏)
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  2. Mei-yuan Chen  (陈美源)
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  3. Xing-jun Guo  (郭兴军)
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  4. Jian-xin Jiang  (江建新)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jian-xin Jiang  (江建新).

Additional information

This project was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81160311 and No. 81101621), the Outstanding Young Training Project of Science and Education of Guizhou Province, China (No. [2012] 177) and the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (No. 2013M531983).

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Wang, M., Chen, My., Guo, Xj. et al. Expression and significance of HIF-1α and HIF-2α in pancreatic cancer. J. Huazhong Univ. Sci. Technol. [Med. Sci.] 35, 874–879 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-015-1521-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-015-1521-3

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