The Relation Between The Expression Of Hypoxia-inducible Factor-1 Alpha And Apoptosis And Proliferation In Pancreatic Cancer

Objective: Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 is a transcriptive factor that regulates genes involved in metabolism angiogenesis and infiltration. The report of the relation of proliferation and apoptosis is few. This study was designed to investigate the expression of hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-la) and its relationship with proliferation nuclear antigen (PCNA) and bcl-2.Methods: Immunohistochemical PicTure method was used to test theexpression of HIF-la, Bcl-2 and PCNA in 47 cases of pancreatic cancer and 10 cases of normal pancreas tissues, respectively.Results: In 47 cases of pancreatic cancer , the positive rate of HIF-la was 55.3%,but all the 10 cases of the normal pancreatic tissues were negative. There was significant difference between the expression of HIF-la and infiltration and metastasis in pancreatic cancer (x2=4.32,6.01; P<0.05) and no relation with the size, differentiation and 1-year survival rate of patients (P >0.05). The extent of proliferation of pancreatic carcinomas was closely correlated with metastasis and 1-year survival rate (x2=5.98, 6.19, P<0.05), but not with the size, histological grade and invasion of pancreatic cancer (P >0.05). The positive rate of bcl-2 in 47 cases of pancreatic carcinomas was 29.8%, and all 10 cases of the normal pancreatic tissue were positive, and it had no relationship with the clinical pathological features of pancreatic cancer (P >0.05).The expression of HIF-la was positively associated with the PCNA level (r=0.586, x2=15.15, P<0.01), but not with the expression of bcl-2 (r= -0.211,x2=2.094, P >0.05) in pancreatic cancer. Conclusion: Overexpression of HIF-la is significantly associated with theproliferation, invasion and metastasis, but not with the apoptosis of pancreatic cancer. The expression level of PCNA is an important predictor for judging the metastasis and prognosis of pancreatic cancer.