Tissue microarray and in situ hybridization study on hypoxia inducible factor 1alpha mRNA expression in epithelial ovarian tumor

Objective To study the expression and significance of hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF 1α) in epithelial ovarian tumors. Methods The expression of HIF 1α mRNA in 295 patients with epithelial ovarian tumor was analyzed retrospectively by high throughput tissue microarray and in situ hybridization, which was compared with 13 normal ovarian tissue samples. Results The expression rates of HIF 1α mRNA were 0, 13.2% ?42.1% and 81.9% in normal ovarian tissue, benign, borderline and malignant ovarian tumors. Expression rate of HIF 1α mRNA in borderline and invasive tumor was significantly higher than those in normal ovarian tissue and benign tumor ( P 0.001). Statistical analysis revealed that the expression of HIF 1α mRNA was not related to FIGO stages or histological subtypes. Close negative relation was observed between the expression of HIF 1α mRNA and tumor histological differentiation ( P 0.001). Conclusion The overexpression of HIF 1α may play an important role in oncogenesis of epithelial ovarian tumor. Tissue microarray is an efficient technique of molecular biology.