Pancreatic cancer cells expressing hypoxia-inducible factor-1α tend to be adjacent to intratumoral blood vessels.

We investigated whether cells expressing hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) are specially related to blood vessels in human pancreatic tumors. HIF-1α and blood vessels were stained in 7 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) and 3 nonmalignant tumors. HIF-1α(+) cells accounted for 37 ± 5% of the total PDAC cells and increased to 52 ± 4% in perivascular PDAC cells and to 67 ± 4% in PDAC cells found in intratumoral blood vessels. In nonmalignant tumors, 12 ± 3% of the total tumoral cells examined were HIF-1α(+), and HIF-1α(+) cells decreased to 2 ± 0.3% in perivascular cells examined in the tumors. In conclusion, HIF-1α(+) cells in PDAC and nonmalignant pancreatic tumors differ not only in their amounts but also in their relation to intratumoral blood vessels. HIF-1α(+) cells usually are adjacent to intratumoral blood vessels in PDAC tumors, but are farther away from the vessels in nonmalignant pancreatic tumors.