Analysis Of Correlation Between Expression Of HIF-1α And Glut1 And Cellular Proliferation In Colorectal Adenocarcinoma

Objective: Malignant cells exhibit increased glucose metabolism and hypoxia at the micro-regional level. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α) and Glucose transporter-1 (Glut1) induce increased glucose metabolism under hypoxia condition. The association between the expression of Glutl, HIF-1α and cellular proliferation in colorectal adenocarcinoma has not been reported. This study was designed to investigate the expression of HIF-1α and Glutl and its relationship with cellular proliferation in colorectal adenocarcinoma.Methods: Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression levels of HIF-1α, Glutl and PCNA in 60 cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma and 20 cases of normal colorectal tissues. The correlation among the expression of HIF-1α, Glut1 and PCNA was compared.Results: In 60 cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma, the positive rate of HIF-1α and Glutl was respectively significantly higher than that in normal colorectal tissue (73.3% vs 0 for HIF1α, P<0.01; 83.3% vs 0 for Glutl, P<0.01). Glutl expression of well-differentiated adenocarcinomas was significantly higher than that of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (P<0.05). The expression of HIF-1α was no correlation with the histological differentiation of tumor. The expression of Glutl and HIF-la was associated with the Dukes stage and lymph node metastasis, the level of expression increased as the Dukes stage. The level of Glutl and HIF-1α expression was found to be higher in C+D stage than A stage (P<0.05, P<0.05). The expression of PCNA in colorectal adenocarcinoma was significantly highly than that in normal colorectal tissue (65.25±16.35 vs 15.20±3.47, P<0.01). There was a positive correlation between HIF-1α and PCNA level ( γ=0.647, P<0.01 ), a positive correlation between Glutl and PCNA level ( γ=0.449, P<0.01 ), and also a positive correlation between Glutl and HIF-1α level (γ=0.581, P<0.01).Conclusions : (1) The overexpression of HIF-1α and Glutl in colorectaladenocarcinoma plays an important role in carcinogenesis and progression of the tumor. (2) There is an intrinsic correlation between the expression of the HIF-la, Glutl and cellular proliferation in colorectal adenocarcinoma. These findings suggest that the synergistic interaction of HIF-la and Glutl might play an important role during the cellular proliferation of tumor.