Expressions and correlation analysis of HIF-1α, survivin and VEGF in patients with hepatocarcinoma

Q.-G. Tian, Y.-T. Wu, Y. Liu, J. Zhang, Z.-Q. Song, W.-F. Gao, T.-K. Guo, C.-H. He, F.-R. Dai

Department of General Surgery, The 4th Affiliated Hospital of Baotou Medical College, Donghe District, Baotou, Inner Mongolia, P.R. China. tianqinggang2005@126.com

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• Oncology

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expressions of HIF-1α, surviving, and VEGF in patients with hepatocarcinoma as well as the correlation analysis among them.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: 65 patients, who were admitted to our hospital and diagnosed as hepatocarcinoma from January 2014 to October 2015, were selected as hepatocarcinoma group, while 50 healthy cases that do not have hepatocarcinoma were selected as normal control group. The expression levels of HIF-1α, surviving, and VEGF in hepatocarcinoma tissues of hepatocarcinoma group and normal liver tissues of control group were detected by immunohistochemical (SP) staining method; then, the correlation among them was explored. The expression levels of HIF-1α, surviving, and VEGF protein in hepatocarcinoma tissues and corresponding normal tissues were detected by Western blot.

RESULTS: The positive expression rate of HIF-1α, surviving, and VEGF in hepatocarcinoma tissues of hepatocarcinoma group was respectively 46.2%, 55.4%, and 61.5%, significantly higher than that in cancer adjacent normal liver tissues of control group which was 2%, 2%, and 2%, and the differences were statistically significant (p<0.05). The expressions of HIF-1α, surviving, and VEGF in hepatocarcinoma tissues of patients with hepatocarcinoma were correlated with clinical stage, tumor differentiation degree and extrahepatic metastasis (p<0.05), but were not related to gender and tumor size (p>0.05). By Spearman rank correlation analysis, it could be seen that HIF-1α expression was positively correlated with VEGF protein expression in hepatocarcinoma tissues (r=0.683, p<0.05). Survivin expression was positively correlated with VEGF protein expression (r=0.717, p<0.05). There was no significant correlation between HIF-1α expression and survivin expression (p>0.05). The relative quantitative value of HIF-1α, surviving, and VEGF in hepatocarcinoma tissues of hepatocarcinoma group was respectively 3.04±0.23, 2.26±0.31, and 2.57±0.36, significantly higher than that in cancer adjacent liver tissues of control group which was 1.07±0.17, 1.31±0.27, and 1.42±0.43, and the differences were statistically significant (p<0.05). From Western blot electrophoresis scanning, it could be seen that the expressions of HIF-1α, surviving, and VEGF in hepatocarcinoma tissues were higher than those in cancer adjacent normal liver tissues.

CONCLUSIONS: The expressions of HIF-1α, surviving, and VEGF played important roles in the occurrence, invasion, and metastasis of hepatocarcinoma. In hepatocarcinoma tissues, HIF-1α, and survivin protein expression was positively correlated with VEGF expression, but survivin protein was not related to HIF-1α expression, which indicated that HIF-1α and survivin may inhibit the apoptosis of hepatocarcinoma cells and promote tumor angiogenesis by up-regulating the expression of VEGF protein, thus accelerating the occurrence and development of hepatocarcinoma.

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