Expression and clinical pathological significance of CXCR4 and HIF-1α protein in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression and clinicopathological significance of CXCR4 and HIF-1α protein in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissue and explore their correlation.Methods The expression of CXCR4 and HIF-1α protein were assessed by immunohistochemistry SP method in 56 cases with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and in 20 cases with surrounded normal tissue.Results The expressions of CXCR4 and HIF-lα in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were significantly higher than those in normal tissues[62.50 ％ (35/56) vs 10.00 ％ (2/20); 57.14 ％ (32/56) vs 0(0/20)](x2=16.259,19.740,P ＜0.01).The expression of CXCR4 and HIF-1α were both correlated with invasion depth (x2 =4.736,7.665,P ＜0.05) and lymph node metastasis ( x2 =7.207,6.389,P ＜0.05),and had no correlation with cancer cell differentiation.The expressions of CXCR4 and HIF-lα in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were positively correlated (r =0.298,P ＜0.05).Conclusion CXCR4 and HIF-1α are highly expressed in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.The two have a close relation to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma growth,invasion and metastasis. Key words: Esophageal cancer;  Chemokine receptor;  Hypoxia inducible factor 1alpha; Immunohistochemistry