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-1α(high)/HIF-2α(low) group showed a shorter survival time than the HIF-1α(low)/HIF-2α(high) 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.
Keywords: HIF-1α; HIF-2α; aggressiveness; pancreatic cancer; prognosis.