Expression HIF-1-abhängiger Gene in humanen Lungenadenokarzinom (A549)-Zellen und deren Regulation nach Photonen- und Schwerionenbestrahlung

Table of Contents: Exposed to hypoxia tumor cells are notably resistant to photon irradiation. The hypoxiainducible transcription factor 1α (HIF-1α) seems to play a fundamental role in this resistance, while its role after heavy-ion beam remains unknown. The intention of this study was to determine how A549-cells (non-small-cell lung carcinoma) react in different oxygenation states after irradiation with photons or heavy ions, particularly in regards to their expression of HIF-1 target genes. Resistance of hypoxic A549 cells after photon irradiation was documented by cellular and clonogenic survival. In contrast, cellular survival after heavy-ion irradiation in hypoxic cells was not elevated to normoxic cells. Among the oxygen dependent regulation of HIF-1 target genes, gene expression analyses showed an increased expression of GLUT-1, LDH-A, PDK-1 and VEGF after photon irradiation but not after heavy-ion irradiation after 48 hours in normoxic cells. As expected, CDKN1A as inhibitor of cell cycle progression showed higher expression after both radiation forms; interestingly CDKN1A was also in an oxygen dependent manner lightly upregulated. In western blot analyses we demonstrated a significant increase of HIF-1 and GLUT-1 caused by hypoxia, but only a tendency of increased protein level in hypoxia after photon irradiation and no changes after heavy-ion irradiation. Significantly higher protein level of secreted VEGF-A could be measured 72 hours after photon irradiation in normoxic cells by ELISA analyses. Controversially discussed, I could not detect an association between HIF-1 and SCF or Trx-1 in A549-cells in this study. Whereas Trx-1-expression was neither influenced by changed oxygen partial pressure nor irradiation, I could show increased SCF mRNA by quantitative Real Time-PCR and secreted protein level by ELISA after photon irradiation independent of oxygen state. In summary, this study showed that HIF-1 and its target genes (GLUT-1, LDHA; PDK, VEGF) and also SCF was increased after photon irradiation and therefore could take part in radioresistance of photon irradiation therapy in contrast to heavy ions. These results suggest a further benefit of the radiotherapy using heavy ions for non-small cell lung cancer.