[Expression of HIF-1α and correlation with angiogenesis in tissue of breast cancer complicated with diabetes].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α) in tissue of breast cancer complicated with diabetes and examine the correlation with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and microvascular density (MVD). METHODS: The clinical data were collected by reviewing the relevant medical records. The difference of clinicopathologic features between breast cancer patients with diabetes (diabetic group) and that of those without diabetes (control group) was analyzed retrospectively. Immunohistochemical Streptavidin-Perosidase (SP) method was used to detect the expressions of HIF-1α and VEGF in breast cancer tissue of two groups.Vascular endothelial cells were tagged with CD31 to calculate MVD. RESULTS: The patients of tumor diameter > 2 cm were 68.4% (67/98) and lymphatic metastasis rate was 59.2% (58/98) in diabetes group. And those in control group were 54.2% (58/107) and lymphatic metastasis rate was 43.9% (47/107). The inter-group difference was significant (P < 0.05).HIP-1α was expressed in both groups. The positive rate of HIF-1α was 80.6% (79/98) in diabetes group versus 64.5% (69/107) in control group (P = 0.010). The positive rate of VEGF was 86.7% (85/98) in diabetes group versus 68.2% (73/107) in control group (P = 0.002). MVD value was 113.7 ± 32.0 in diabetes group versus 104.7 ± 29.4 in control group (P = 0.003). The positive rate of VEGF in HIF-1α positive patients of diabetes group was significantly higher than that in negative counterparts (91.1% vs 68.4%, P = 0.009). The values of MVD were 117.1 ± 30.3 and 99.5 ± 35.1 respectively in both groups. And the MVD value of HIF-1α positive group was significantly higher than that of negative group (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Diabetic complications may play critical roles in the development and metastasis of breast cancer through enhanced angiogenesis of tumor tissue.