TY - JOUR T1 - Analysis of Malignant Melanoma Cell Lines Exposed to Hypoxia Reveals the Importance of <em>PFKFB4</em> Overexpression for Disease Progression JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 6745 LP - 6752 DO - 10.21873/anticanres.13044 VL - 38 IS - 12 AU - SONIA E. TROJAN AU - MONIKA PIWOWAR AU - BARBARA OSTROWSKA AU - PIOTR LAIDLER AU - KINGA A. KOCEMBA-PILARCZYK Y1 - 2018/12/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/38/12/6745.abstract N2 - Background/Aim: Most melanomas develop in hypoxic conditions. Since hypoxia via HIF-1 induces glycolysis, a process essential for malignant melanoma growth/survival, the goal of this study was to analyze the influence of hypoxia on the expression of HIF-1 target genes involved in glucose metabolism. Materials and Methods: The response of melanoma cell lines to hypoxic conditions was analyzed by RT-PCR and western blotting. A Kaplan–Meier survival analysis for patients with high and low expression level of PFKFB4 was performed. Further analysis of patients' data was performed using the R/Bioconductor environment. Results: Induction of PFKFB4 gene expression can be considered a crucial mechanism behind glycolysis enhancement in hypoxic melanoma cells. Analysis of a publicly available database revealed that high PFKFB4 expression contributes to poor prognosis of melanoma patients. Conclusion: Currently available anti-melanoma therapeutic strategies may significantly benefit from agents targeting PFKFB4 activity. ER -