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.