Pancreatic Cancer Cells Expressing Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1α Tend to Be Adjacent to Intratumoral Blood Vessels.

Cheng, B.-Q.; Segersvärd, R.; Permert, J.; Wang, F.

We investigated whether cells expressing hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) are specially related to blood vessels in human pancreatic tumors. HIF-1α and blood vessels were stained in 7 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) and 3 nonmalignant tumors. HIF-1α+ cells accounted for 37 ± 5% of the total PDAC cells and increased to 52 ± 4% in perivascular PDAC cells and to 67 ± 4% in PDAC cells found in intratumoral blood vessels. In nonmalignant tumors, 12 ± 3% of the total tumoral cells examined were HIF-1α+, and HIF-1α+ cells decreased to 2 ± 0.3% in perivascular cells examined in the tumors. In conclusion, HIF-1α+ cells in PDAC and nonmalignant pancreatic tumors differ not only in their amounts but also in their relation to intratumoral blood vessels. HIF-1α+ cells usually are adjacent to intratumoral blood vessels in PDAC tumors, but are farther away from the vessels in nonmalignant pancreatic tumors. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel

PANCREATIC cancer treatment; CANCER cells; BLOOD-vessel tumors; CELLULAR therapy; ADENOCARCINOMA; HYPOXEMIA; CELL communication; GENETICS

European Surgical Research, 2010, Vol 45, Issue 3/4, p134

0014-312X

Academic Journal

10.1159/000319876