Expression and Clinical Significances of PTEN, Ki-67 and HIF-1α in Human Gliomas

Objective: Tumor suppressor PTEN, oncogene Ki-67 and HIF-1α play important roles in the malignant progression of multiple human tumors. In this study, we mainly investigate the expression and the clinical significances of PTEN, Ki-67 and HIF-1α in human gliomas to lay a foundation for the assessment of prognosis, the molecular pathological diagnosis and the treatment of gene targeting in glioma patients. Methods: Expression status of PTEN, Ki-67 and HIF-1α was detected by immunohistochemistry in 83 cases of human glioma specimens. Correlations of the expression between each other, as well as correlations between the expression and malignant grade were also analyzed. Results: All the normal brain tissues showed PTEN positive and Ki-67 negative expression, while 10%(1/10) specimens showed HIF-1α positive. In gliomas, PTEN expression was significantly decreased(P=0.001), while expression of Ki-67(P0.001) and HIF-1α(P=0.001) were both increased. With the ascending of the malignant grade, PTEN expression was significantly decreased(P0.001) but expression of Ki-67 and HIF-1α was increased(P0.001, for both). Furthermore, relevant analyses indicated that correlations between PTEN expression and Ki-67 or HIF-1α expression were negative(r=-0.289 and-0.304, respectively;P=0. 008 and 0.005, respectively), while correlation between Ki-67 expression and HIF-1α expression was positive(r=0.833;P 0.001). Conclusion: Expression of tumor suppressor PTEN was down-regulated, while expression of oncogene Ki-67 and HIF-1αwas up-regulated in gliomas. Down-regulation or inactivation of PTEN tumor suppressor, up-regulation of oncogene Ki-67 and HIF-1α may play important roles in the malignant progression of gliomas. Combined detection of PTEN、Ki-67 and HIF-1α protein may play important clinical roles in the assessment of the malignancy and prognosis of gliomas.