Expression and significance of TLR4 and HIF-1α in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Table 1 Expression of TLR4 and HIF-1α protein in pancreatic carcinoma and adjacent tissues n (%)

	Cases	TLR4 protein		HIF-1α protein
		Positive	P value	Positive	P value
Tumor tissues	65	45 (69.20)	0.003	46 (70.80)	0.001
Adjacent tissues	38	15 (39.50)		14 (36.80)

TLR4: Toll-like receptor 4; HIF-1α: Hypoxia-inducible transcription factor-1α.

Table 2 Relationship between TLR4, HIF-1α and clinical pathologic features

	TLR4 mRNA		TLR4 protein			HIF-1α mRNA		HIF-1α protein
	mean ± SD	P	+	-	P	mean ± SD	P	+	-	P
Age (yr)		0.258			0.381		0.150			0.229
≤ 59	0.83 ± 0.10		24	13		0.90 ± 0.13		24	13
≥ 60	0.79 ± 0.09		21	7		0.84 ± 0.08		22	6
Gender		0.133			0.137		0.744			0.464
Male	0.79 ± 0.09		25	15		0.88 ± 0.11		27	13
Female	0.84 ± 0.10		20	5		0.86 ± 0.12		19	6
Location of tumor		0.374			0.280		0.197			0.680
Pancreas head	0.80 ± 0.11		31	11		0.89 ± 0.13		29	13
Pancreas body-tail	0.83 ± 0.09		14	9		0.84 ± 0.08		17	6
Histology		0.654			0.585		0.279			0.224
Well	0.84 ± 0.11		13	8		0.88 ± 0.11		12	9
Moderate	0.80 ± 0.11		19	6		0.89 ± 0.12		20	5
Poor	0.80 ± 0.07		13	6		0.82 ± 0.08		14	5
Tumor size (cm)		0.021			0.014		0.030			0.039
≤ 2	0.77 ± 0.07		9	10		0.82 ± 0.08		10	9
> 2	0.85 ± 0.10		36	10		0.91 ± 0.12		36	10
pN		0.012			0.017		0.049			0.038
Positive	0.85 ± 0.09		32	8		0.90 ± 0.12		32	8
Negative	0.77 ± 0.08		13	12		0.82 ± 0.08		14	11
Venous invasion		0.021			0.023		0.018			0.033
Positive	0.85 ± 0.09		17	2		0.91 ± 0.12		17	2
Negative	0.77 ± 0.09		28	18		0.82 ± 0.07		29	17
pStage		0.031			0.010		0.016			0.024
I, II	0.77 ± 0.09		12	12		0.81 ± 0.07		13	11
III, IV	0.84 ± 0.09		33	8		0.91 ± 0.12		33	8

Table 3 Correlation between TLR4 and HIF-1α protein

	TLR4 expression		rp	P value
	Positive (n = 45)	Negative (n = 20)
HIF-1α expression			0.451	0.000
Positive (n = 46)	38	8
Negative (n = 19)	7	12

Table 4 Impact of TLR4 and HIF-1α on survival time

Protein	Expression	Estimated survival	95% CI		P
			Lower bound	Upper bound
TLR4	Positive	12.4	10.8	14.0	0.011
	Negative	19.7	15.4	23.9
HIF-1α	Positive	12.8	11.1	14.4	0.005
	Negative	20.2	15.2	25.1
TLR4 positive	HIF-1α positive	11.8	10.1	13.4	0.132
	HIF-1α negative	15.0	10.9	19.2
TLR4 negative	HIF-1α positive	16.5	12.5	20.6	0.089
	HIF-1α negative	21.6	15.1	28.2	0.0141

¹P value compared between patients with both negative TLR4 and HIF-1α expression and those with both positive TLR4 and HIF-1α expression.