Cytoplasmic HIF-1α Research Articles

Expression of hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha in matched hormone naive and castrate resistant prostate cancer specimens

Hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) is known as an important transcription factor in endocrine tumours. It is elevated in hypoxic tumour microenvironment, increasing angiogenesis and enabling tumour cells to enter the circulation. We therefore hypothesised that patients with advanced prostate cancer disease have high tumoural HIF-1α xpression and worse disease specific survival. Aim of this study was to assess expression of HIF-1α in prostate cancer specimens taken before and after castrate resistance to address its cellular location and to examine if this is associated with clinicopathological features and clinical outcome of the particular prostate cancer cohort. 50 pairs of hormone naive and castrate resistant prostate cancer specimens were analysed employing tissue microarray technology. Immunohistochemistry was performed using an antibody to HIF-1α.HIF-1α expression was observed in both, cytoplasm and nucleus. Cytoplasmic HIF-1α expression correlated positively with metastases at diagnosis (p=0.005), whereas nuclear HIF-1α expression correlated with metastases at relapse (p=0.041). Cytoplasmic and nuclear HIF-1α expression did not change from hormone naive to hormone castrate resistant tumours. No significant association was observed in this study between tumoural HIF-1α expression, biochemical relapse and patient survival. HIF-1α was associated with the presence of metastases at time of diagnosis and time of relapse. HIF-1α is likely to play a role in progressive prostate cancer.

Adrenomedullin expression and regulation in human glioblastoma, cultured human glioblastoma cell lines and pilocytic astrocytoma

Clinical and experimental studies suggest that angiogenesis is a prerequisite for solid tumour growth. Glioblastoma (GBM) and pilocytic astrocytoma (PA), both angiogenic tumours display strong contrast enhancement associated with peripheral oedema in GBM but not in PA indicating differences in vascular permeability in these two types of gliomas. Here we show that expression of adrenomedullin ( AM) mRNA is induced in GBM whereas is barely detectable in PA. In situ analysis of tumour specimens undergoing neovascularisation shows that the production of AM is specifically induced in a subset of GBM cells distinguished by their immediate proximity to necrotic foci (presumably hypoxic regions), suggesting a hypoxic induction of AM expression in GBM. Vascular endothelial growth factor ( VEGF) mRNA levels are increased in GBM and moderate in PA. Immunohistochemical study showed that cytoplasmic AM, VEGF and HIF-1α nuclear immunoreactivity were recorded in GBM located near large necrotic areas whereas they were not expressed by PA tumour cells. Interestingly, double fluorescence immunostaining demonstrated that 85% of AM immunoreactivity colocalised with VEGF. AM transduces its effects through calcitonin receptor-like receptor/receptor activity modifying protein-2 and -3 (CLR/RAMP2 and CLR/RAMP3). Real-time quantitative RT-PCR showed expression of RAMP2, RAMP3 and CLR in PA and GBM, suggesting that AM may function as an autocrine/paracrine growth factor for GBM cells. These observations strongly support the concept that tumour angiogenesis is regulated by paracrine mechanisms and identify beside VEGF, AM as a potential tumour angiogenesis factor in vivo which constitutes a potential interesting molecular target in GBM treatment.

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α protein expression is associated with poor survival in normal karyotype adult acute myeloid leukemia

We examined the predictive impact of HIF-1α protein expression on clinical outcome of 84 normal karyotype acute myeloid leukemia (NK-AML) patients (median age 66.5 years) at our institute. Thirty percent of NK-AML cells expressed cytoplasmic HIF-1α. In univariate analysis, low HIF-1α (≤5%, n = 66) was associated with improved event-free survival ( p = 0.0453, HR = 0.22). Multivariate analysis incorporating age, complete remission, FLT3-ITD mutation, and marrow blast percentage demonstrated that HIF-1α was independently associated with poorer overall and event-free survival. HIF-1α expression correlated with VEGF-C but not VEGF-A, marrow angiogenesis, FLT3 ITD or NPM1 mutations. These results support HIF-1α as an outcome marker for NK-AML.

Hypoxia inducible factor-1α correlates with vascular endothelial growth factor A and C indicating worse prognosis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

BackgroundThe role of angiogenesis in the pathogenesis of renal cell carcinoma is well recognized, however, the influence of tumor cells in this activity has not yet been fully clarified. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), a regulatory factor of angiogenic switch, in comparison to vascular endothelial growth factor A and C (VEGF-A and VEGF-C), recognized to be involved in blood and lymph vessel neoangiogenesis, with potential association in the prognosis of patients with renal cell carcinoma.MethodsNinety-four patients with diagnosis of clear cell renal cell carcinomas (CCRCC), all clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival were unrolled in this study. Immunohistochemicaly VEGF-A, VEGF-C, HIF-1α and Ki67 were detected on tumor cells and the staining was performed on tissue microarrays (TMA). The staining was evaluated as a percentage of cytoplasmic or nuclear positive tumor cells.ResultsVariable expression of all three proteins was confirmed. Both angiogenic factors demonstrated perimembranous or diffuse cytoplasmic staining, with diffuse pattern positively associated (p < 0.001). Nuclear HIF-1α expression (nHIF-1α) showed inverse correlation with diffuse cytoplasmic VEGF-A (p = 0.002) and VEGF-C (p = 0.053), while cytoplasmic HIF-1α expression (cHIF-1α) showed positive correlation with diffuse staining of both angiogenic factors (p < 0.001; p < 0.001, respectively). In comparison to clinicopathological characteristics, a higher nuclear grade (p = 0.006; p < 0.001, respectively), larger tumor size (p = 0.009; p = 0.015, respectively), higher stage (p = 0.023; p = 0.027, respectively) and shorter survival (p = 0.018; p = 0.024, respectively) were associated with overexpression of cHIF-1α and diffuse cytoplasmic VEGF-A expression. In contrary, overexpression of nHIF-1α was associated with better diagnostic parameters i.e. lower nuclear grade (p = 0.006), smaller tumor size (p = 0.057), and longer survival (p = 0.005).ConclusionOverexpression of VEGF-A and cHIF-1α in tumor cells highlights a more aggressive subtype of CCRCC that might have some clinical implications. The significance of nHIF-1α expression associated with better differentiated tumors should be further elucidated.

Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1 Alpha (HIF-1α) and HIF-2α Are Independent Prognostic Factors for Normal Karyotype Acute Myeloid Leukemia (NK AML)

Emerging data has shown that severe hypoxia in vitro selects for highly immature or therapy-resistant leukemia clones and may be a crucial component of leukemia stem cell niches. One mechanism utilized by normal cells to survive hypoxia is upregulation of hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), a master transcription factor that directly transactivates genes important for cellular responses to hypoxia including angiogenesis and anaerobic metabolic pathways. HIF-1α is rapidly degraded under normoxia but is stabilized and synthesized under hypoxia or following malignant transformation. Overexpression of HIF-1α protein is associated with increased patient (pt) mortality in multiple solid cancer types, and with worse clinical outcome in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia; however, its role in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is unknown. First, we examined the response of human AML cells in vitro to hypoxic stress. We found that in vitro exposure of human AML cell lines (HEL, HL60/VCR) with low baseline HIF-1α levels to hypoxia (≤1% O2, 5%CO2) resulted in significantly increased HIF-1α mRNA levels after 4 hours followed by increased HIF-1α protein and elevated VEGF-A and VEGFR-1 mRNA levels peaking at 8 hours. We then examined expression of HIF-1α and a related hypoxia factor, HIF-2α, in diagnostic marrow samples from 91 consecutive AML pts (46% male, 54% female) treated at our institute from 1995–2005. As karyotype is the most important prognostic factor in AML, we examined only normal karotype AML samples associated with intermediate prognosis. Median patient age was 66 years (range 21–87). Less than half (n=46, 49%) achieved complete remission (CR) following induction chemotherapy. Median overall survival (OS) was 9.6 months. HIF-1α and HIF-2α levels were measured by Q-PCR and expressed relative to normal bone marrow controls (level of mRNA expression=1). HIF-1α protein expression was also evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and qualified as nuclear vs. cytoplasmic. We found that HIF-1α mRNA levels were consistently higher in AML cells than normal bone marrow controls (median fold change 2.78; range 0.48–22.89), although HIF-1α protein levels was increased in only a minority of samples. In contrast, HIF-2α mRNA levels were consistently lower in AML samples than normal bone marrow (median 0.14; range 0.7–0.42). Univariate analysis demonstrated that age, CR, and nuclear HIF-1α protein expression by IHC (p=0.0081) impacted OS. Significant factors for event free survival (EFS) were age, CR, and cytoplasmic HIF-1α IHC expression (p=0.0422). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that age, CR, cytoplasmic HIF-1α IHC expression (p=0.0056; HR=0.22; 95% CI=0.07–0.64) and HIF-2α mRNA expression (p=0.0101; HR=0.16; 95% CI=0.04–0.65) were independent predictors for OS. Similarly, age, CR, cytoplasmic HIF-1α IHC expression (p=0.0302; HR=0.26; 95% CI=0.08–0.88), and HIF-2α mRNA levels (p=0.0016, HR 0.08, 95% CI= 0.02–0.39) were also independent factors for EFS.Conclusions: Our results are the first to demonstrate that overexpression of HIF-1α and HIF-2α are independent prognostic factors in normal karyotype AML (constituting 40–49% of all adult AML diagnoses). Given the fact that HIF expression can be upregulated by oncogenes and tumor suppressors, additional studies examining potential correlations between HIF-1/2α expression and FLT-3/NPM-1 gene mutations in NK-AML; and in other prognostic AML subgroups (i.e. AML with recurrent or complex cytogenetics) are warranted. Based on these data, inhibition of HIF-1/2α mediated pathways with targeted agents may represent a future means to improve clinical outcome for subsets of AML patients.

Prognostic Role of Tumor Necrosis, Microvessel Density, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1α in Patients with Clear Cell Renal Carcinoma after Radical Nephrectomy in a Long Term Follow-up

Angiogenesis is a critical step in the growth, invasive progression and metastatic spread of solid tumors. We investigated the importance of tumor necrosis, and microvessel density (MVD), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and hypoxia inducible factor 1alpha (HIF-1alpha) immunohistochemical expression in a large series of clear cell renal carcinomas treated with radical nephrectomy and assessed the prognostic value of their expression in terms of patient survival at long-term followup. Fifty patients with clear cell RCC were examined. The features considered when evaluating the patients were age, tumor size and grade, intratumoral vascular and renal capsula invasion, histological necrosis, and MVD, vascular and tumoral cell VEGF, and vascular, tumoral cytoplasmic and nuclear HIF-1alpha expression on the histologic specimens. All considered parameters were correlated with patient specific survival. Mean age was 62.06 +/- 6.8 years. Median follow-up was 191.66 months; median survival was 120.86 months. Twenty-one patients developed metastases in the follow-up. Tumor necrosis, microvascular invasion and renal capsula infiltration are more likely to occur in high stage and grade RCC; cytoplasmic HIF-1alpha is highly expressed in high grade RCC. Survival is dependent upon tumor stage and grade, the presence of intratumoral vascular invasion and capsular infiltration, and tumor necrosis; MVD also resulted as being an important prognostic factor. VEGF and HIF-1alpha correlate with prognosis in high stage tumors where VEGF is the most important independent prognostic factor for cancer specific death. The histological and immunohistochemical parameters considered in our study can influence disease recurrence and survival in RCC.

The Skp1 Prolyl Hydroxylase from Dictyostelium Is Related to the Hypoxia-inducible Factor-α Class of Animal Prolyl 4-Hydroxylases

Skp1 is a cytoplasmic and nuclear protein of eukaryotes best known as an adaptor in SCF ubiquitin-protein isopeptide ligases. In Dictyostelium, Skp1 is subject to 4-hydroxylation at Pro(143) and subsequent O-glycosylation by alpha-linked GlcNAc and other sugars. Soluble cytosolic extracts have Skp1 prolyl 4-hydroxylase (P4H) activity, which can be measured based on hydroxylation-dependent transfer of [(3)H]GlcNAc to recombinant Skp1 by recombinant (Skp1-protein)-hydroxyproline alpha-N-acetyl-d-glucosaminyltransferase. The Dictyostelium Skp1 P4H gene (phyA) was predicted using a bioinformatics approach, and the expected enzyme activity was confirmed by expression of phyA cDNA in Escherichia coli. The purified recombinant enzyme (P4H1) was dependent on physiological concentrations of O(2), alpha-ketoglutarate, and ascorbate and was inhibited by CoCl(2), 3,4-dihydroxybenzoate, and 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl acetate, as observed for known animal cytoplasmic P4Hs of the hypoxia-inducible factor-alpha (HIFalpha) class. Overexpression of phyA cDNA in Dictyostelium yielded increased enzyme activity in a soluble cytosolic extract. Disruption of the phyA locus by homologous recombination resulted in loss of detectable activity in extracts and blocked hydroxylation-dependent glycosylation of Skp1 based on molecular weight analysis by SDS-PAGE, demonstrating a requirement for P4H1 in vivo. The sequence and functional similarities of P4H1 to animal HIFalpha-type P4Hs suggest that hydroxylation of Skp1 may, like that of animal HIFalpha, be regulated by availability of O(2), alpha-ketoglutarate, and ascorbate, which might exert novel control over Skp1 glycosylation.