Hypoxia inducible factor‐1 alpha plays a pivotal role in hepatic metastasis of pancreatic cancer: an immunohistochemical study. Issue 2 (20th June 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Matsuo, Yoichiro; Ding, Qiang; Desaki, Ryosuke; Maemura, Kosei; Mataki, Yuko; Shinchi, Hiroyuki; Natsugoe, Shoji; Takao, Sonshin
• Is Part Of: Journal of hepato-biliary-pancreatic sciences. Volume 21:Issue 2(2014)
• Page Start: 105
• Page End: 112
• Publication Date: 2013-06-20
• Subjects: Liver -- Diseases -- Periodicals; Biliary tract -- Diseases -- Periodicals; Pancreas -- Diseases -- Periodicals; 617.556
• DOI: 10.1002/jhbp.6
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1868-6974

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="jhbp6-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Background</title> <p>Hypoxia is an important condition to promote angiogenesis that is essential to tumor progression, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). We evaluated whether the immunohistochemistry for hypoxia inducible factor‐1α (HIF‐1α) was correlated with hepatic metastases in PDAC.</p> </sec> <sec id="jhbp6-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>We examined the expression of HIF‐1α, vascular endothelial growth factor‐A (VEGF‐A), thymidine phosphorylase (TP) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in a total of 100 paraffin‐embedded PDAC primary tumors using immunohistochemical staining, and assessed their clinicopathological correlations. We determined microvessel count (MVC) and apoptotic index (AI), and assessed their correlations with hepatic metastases. Student's <italic>t</italic>‐test, the Mann–Whitney <italic>U</italic>‐test, and Spearman correlation coefficients were used to validate the model, and regression analysis was used to test the model.</p> </sec> <sec id="jhbp6-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>Hypoxia inducible factor‐1α expression induced the expression of multiple angiogenic factors, leading to a higher MVC and a lower AI. HIF‐1α expression (<italic>P</italic> = 0.0087) and angiogenic factors (<italic>P</italic> = 0.0079) were significantly associated with not only the microvessel status (<italic>P</italic> = 0.022) but also the high incidence of hepatic metastasis (<italic>P</italic> = 0.02), resulting in the worse survival of PDAC patients (<italic>P</italic> < 0.05).</p> </sec> <sec id="jhbp6-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>Hypoxia inducible factor‐1α plays a pivotal role in hepatic metastasis through its association with the expression of angiogenic factors in PDAC patients. These results may contribute future therapeutic strategies to prevent pancreatic cancer metastasis.</p> </sec> </abstract>