Immunohistochemical analysis and scRNA-Seq identifies vascular endothelial CXCR4 expression as a predictor of poor prognosis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Authors

Shunsuke Imamura, Takeshi Uehara, Mai Iwaya, Shiho Asaka, Shinsuke Sugenoya, Hiroshi Sawaguchi, Yasuhiro Kuraishi, Tomoyuki Nakajima, Shotaro Komamura, Akira Nakamura, Takefumi Kimura, Yugo Iwaya, Akira Shimizu, Yuji Soejima, Hiroyoshi Ota, Tadanobu Nagaya

Published in

Translational oncology. Volume 71. Pages 102916. Jul 14, 2026. Epub Jul 14, 2026.

Abstract

The clinical significance of C-X-C chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) expression at the invasive front of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains unclear. This study investigated CXCR4 expression in the vascular endothelium at sites of cancer tissue infiltration into the pancreatic surrounding fatty tissue in resected PDAC specimens.
We prepared tissue microarrays from 80 cases of PDAC resected between 2011 and 2023 and retrospectively analyzed the samples by immunohistochemistry. CXCR4 expression in blood vessels was semi-quantitatively scored (0 to 3+) and categorized as high (2-3+) or low (0-1+). We also analyzed the clinicopathological features associated with CXCR4 expression. Finally, leveraging public databases for single-cell RNA sequencing was used to confirm the localization of CXCR4 expression.
Of the 80 cases, 33 exhibited high CXCR4 expression and 47 showed low expression. The high expression group had a significantly shorter median overall survival (469 versus 1176 days, P = 0.0361). In the multivariate analysis, high CXCR4 expression (hazard ratio 1.8180, 95% confidence interval, 1.0350-3.193, P = 0.0342) was an independent prognostic factor. single-cell RNA sequencing revealed sparse CXCR4 expression in arteries, veins, capillaries, and tip-like endothelial cells.
Vascular endothelial CXCR4 expression at the invasive front of PDAC is associated with poor prognosis and may be associated with tumor progression in correlation with angiogenic mechanisms.

PMID:
42447567
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.