title: Pigment epithelium-derived factor has a role in the progression of papillary thyroid carcinoma by affecting the HIF1α-VEGF signaling pathway.
abstract: The progression mechanism of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) remains largely unknown. Accumulating evidence has suggested that various targets of pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) are able to inhibit cancer progression. The aim of the present study was to examine PEDF expression in PTC patients and to investigate its relationship with aggressive clinicopathological features, as well as to explore whether PEDF affects the progression of PTC via the hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α)-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway. A total of 271 patients with PTC, including 24 men and 247 women, were enrolled in the present study. Relevant patient data, including demographic features, preoperative clinical features and pathological features, were collected for analysis. The protein expression levels of PEDF in PTC tissues were detected using immunohistochemical staining, and the mRNA expression levels ofPEDF,VEGFandHIF1αin 15 PTC tissues with lymph node metastasis (LNM) and 10 tissues without LNM were detected using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Immunohistochemical staining with an anti-PEDF antibody detected PEDF expression in 74.5% of the PTC tissues. PEDF expression levels were significantly correlated with LNM, extrathyroid invasion, a high TNM stage, the presence of the BRAFV600Emutation and tumor size.PEDFmRNA expression levels were significantly decreased in PTC tissues with LNM, as compared with PTC tissues without LNM, while the mRNA expression levels ofHIF1αandVEGFwere markedly increased in PTC tissues with LNM. Taken together, the results of the present study suggested that PEDF plays a role in the progression of PTC, and that PEDF may exert an anti-angiogenesis role by affecting the HIF1α-VEGF pathway, eventually inhibiting the metastasis of PTC.
authors.affiliation: The Fourth Department of General Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150086, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yichen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: The Fourth Department of General Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150086, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: The Fourth Department of General Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150086, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Tiefeng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: The Fourth Department of General Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150086, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chenlei
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: The Fourth Department of General Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150086, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Huadong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150086, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhaozhu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
keywords: hypoxia-inducible factor 1α; metastasis; papillary thyroid carcinoma; pigment epithelium-derived factor; vascular endothelial growth factor