Study on relationship between expression of P53, HIF-1α and angiogengesis of colorectal carcinoma

Objective: To investigate the impact of HIF-1α expression and its relation with p53 protein overexpression on the angiogenesis and biological behavior of colorectal carcinoma. Methods: Sixty-one samples of colorectal carcinoma tissues were examined for p53, HIF-1α and VEGF expression by SABC immunohistochemical method and for the CD34 endothelial antigen by SP immunohistochemical method to highlight the new growth microvessels, the microvessel density of tumor was calculated. Results: The positive rate of HIF-1α expression was 65.6%, in which the weak, moderate and strong positive expression rates were 27.9%, 19.7% and 18.0%, respectively. The positive rates of p53 and VEGF expression were 42.6 %, 49.2 %, respectively. The mean of MVD was 28.7±12.9 (range from 6 to 55). The expressions of HIF-1α, VEGF and MVD were significantly correlated with the depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, liver metastasis and Dukes′ stage. The expression of p53 was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and liver metastasis. p53 and VEGF expression and MVD were positively correlated with HIF-1α expression (Their relative coefficient were 0.261, P0.05; 0.591, P0.01 and 0.795, P0.01 respectively). Conclusions: HIF-1α/VEGF pathway may play an important role in angiogenesis of colorectal carcinoma. Loss of p53 function may facilitate angiogenesis via HIF-1α/VEGF pathway. Loss of p53 function, overexpression of HIF-1α and VEGF and higher MVD are related with the poor biological behavior of colorectal carcinoma.