Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α, vascular endothelial growth factor, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and endothelin-1 expression correlates with angiogenesis in congenital heart disease.

In Taiwan, the average prevalence of congenital heart disease (CHD) is 13.08/1000 live births. Most children with CHD die before the age of 5 years; therefore, identifying treatment methods to extend the life of CHD patients is an important issue in clinical practice. The objective of this study is to evaluate the roles of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), endothelin-1 (ET-1), and CD34 in CHD autopsy cases in comparison with autopsy cases without CHD. The study included 19 autopsy cases, which were divided into the following four groups: acyanotic CHD (n = 11), cyanotic CHD (n = 3), CHD associated with chromosomal abnormalities (n = 3), and complex CHD (n = 2). Heart specimens obtained from 10 autopsy cases without CHD were included as controls. Our results indicated that high percentages of HIF-1α (100%), VEGF (89.5%), iNOS (78.9%), and ET-1 (84.2%) expressions were observed in CHD autopsy cases and this was found to be significant. HIF-1α induced by hypoxia could play a potential role in relating downstream gene expressions in CHD patients. Upregulation of VEGF by HIF-1α could play an important role in triggering angiogenesis to protect myocardial cell survival in a hypoxic microenvironment. Therefore, HIF-1α could be a significant prognosis marker in CHD and be a prospective candidate in the development of target therapy in cardiovascular diseases.