Bioinformatics analysis of hypoxic markers in cervical cancer via big data

Objective To investigate the hypoxic markers in cervical cancer and its prognostic value via GEO (gene expression omnibus) and TCGA (the cancer genome atlas) database. Methods The datasets of cervical cancer were downloaded from GEO and TCGA database. Hypoxic markers in cervical cancer were explored via GSE75034 database.Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis were performed to analyze gene functions. Kaplan-Meier and log-rank test were used to study the prognostic value via TCGA database. Results A total of 337 genes had different expression levels between hypoxic tissues and non-hypoxic tissues, of which 184 genes were upregulated and 153 genes were downregulated. GO analysis showed these genes were related to immune response, inflammation, cell proliferation, angiogenesis, etc. KEGG analysis showed that these genes were enriched in TNF signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and HIF-1 signaling pathway. Moreover, TCGA data analysis showed PAI-1, BCL-2, HK-2 which enriched in HIF-1 signaling pathway were related to cervical cancer patient prognosis. High levels of PAI-1 and HK-2 expression were significantly correlated with shortened survival (all P<0.05), which indicated a worse outcome, whereas high level of BCL-2 expression was significantly correlated with a prolonged survival (χ²=6.508,P=0.011), suggesting BCL-2 was a protective factor. Conclusions Our results suggested that PAI-1, BCL-2 and HK-2 could be promising hypoxia biomarkers for the prognosis of cervical cancer.