AKT1 and gastric carcinoma: More importantly, histological analysis of human gastric carcinoma tissues suggested that EBVaGC displayed more VM structures and expressed higher levels of phospho-AKT and nuclear HIF-1α than did EBV-negative gastric carcinoma tissue (Fig. 7a, bottom panel and c), indicating that EBV plays a general role in VM formation via the AKT/HIF-1α axis in EBV-associated epithelial malignancies.