Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Introduction: Tumour hypoxia is considered as a key factor driving the development of malignancy, and the master regulatory protein in the response of cells to changing oxygen levels is hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1). Thus, present study  was undertaken to evaluate HIF 1 alpha expression in esophageal carcinoma.Material and Methods: The study was carried out on 50 cases diagnosed as  Esophageal carcinoma. Histopathological examination of the tissues were conducted under light microscope for classification and histopathological grading. Immunohistochemistry of the tumors was carried out for HIF-alpha.Obtained data was arranged accordingly and was expressed as a number and percentage of respondents and were analyzed using the SPSS Version 17 software. Results: The HIF-1 alpha positivity was observed in 68% cases with percentage positive cells varied from 1-90% with weak, distinct and strong staining intensity. In HIF-1 alpha positive cases, most of the patients were in the age group 41-60 years. HIF-1 alpha positivity was seen in 70.2% cases of squamous cell carcinoma while  adenocarcinomapostivity was seen in 33.1% cases. Since most of the cases included in the study were of moderately differentiated carcinoma, no significance between grading and HIF-1 alpha expression was elicited. HIF-1 alpha expression in metastatic deposit lymph nodes was noted in 41.1% cases. Conclusion: The results of the present study concludes that HIF-1alpha is involved in gastric carcinogenesis and disease progression.
Keywords: Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α; Immunohistochemistry; Malignancy