Expression and clinical significance of human antigen R and hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha in renal cell carcinoma

Objective To investigate the clinical significance and correlation of human antigen R (HuR) and hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α) expressions in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).Methods Immuno-histochemistry PV9000 method was used to detect the expression of HuR and HIF-1α in 76 cases of RCC tissues,20 cases of para-carcinoma tissues and 15 cases of normal renal tissues.The correlation between the two proteins and clinical pathological parameters of RCC patients were analyzed.KaplanMeier estimates were used for survival analysis,and correlation analyses were conducted by using Spearman rank correlation method and chi-square test.Results The cytoplasm positive expression rate (38.2％) of HuR in RCC was higher than that in para-carcinoma tissues (10.0％) and normal renal tissues (13.3％,P＜0.05).The nucleus positive expression rate (48.7％) of HIF-1α in RCC was significantly higher than that in para-carcinoma tissues (5.0％) and normal renal tissues (0,P＜0.05).The expression level of HuR in cytoplasm was significantly correlated with the clinical stage,histological subtype and lymph node metastasis status (P＜0.05) in RCC.There was significant correlation between the expression level of nucleus HIF-1α and clinical stage,pathological grade and lymph node metastasis status in RCC (P＜0.05).There was positive correlation between cytoplasm HuR and nucleus HIF-1α expression level (P＜0.05) in RCC.Sixty-six RCC patients were followed up for 6 to 67 months,patients with negative cytoplasm HuR or negative nucleus HIF1α expression had better overall survival rate and longer mean survival time than those with positive expression (P＜0.05).Conclusions The expression levels of cytoplasm HuR and nucleus HIF-1α are associated with the clinical pathological parameter of RCC patients.HuR and HIF-1α may play an important role in the prognosis assessment of RCC patients. Key words: Carcinoma, renal cell;  Human antigen R;  Hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha;  Diagnosis ;  Prognosis