[Expression of hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha and relationship thereof to apoptosis related protein in non-small cell lung cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) and relationship thereof to survivin and Bax, apoptosis related proteins, in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODS: Immunohistochemistry was used in 52 specimens of NSCLC to detect the expression of HIF-1alpha, survivin and Bax.

RESULTS: The positive rates of HIF-1alpha, survivin and Bax were 38.5% (20/52), 48.1% (25/52), and 42.3% (22/52) respectively. The higher the pathological stage of tumor, the higher expression rate of HIF-1alpha (chi2=8.271, P<0.05). The positive rate of HIF-1alpha expression of the patients with lymph node metastasis was higher than that of the patients without lymph node metastasis (chi2=6.370, P<0.05). However, HIF-1alpha expression had no relationship to the pathological type (chi2=0.561, P>0.05) and differentiation degree (chi2=0.326, P>0.05). Correlation analysis showed that the expression of HIF-1alpha was positively correlated with the surviving expression (gamma=0.496, P<0.05) and Bax expression (gamma=0.681, P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: The expression of HIF-1alpha is related to the infiltration, metastasis, and apoptosis of NSCLC.