The immunohistochemical staining results revealed a significant upregulation of vimentin (r = 0.68, p value = 0.03) and a notable downregulation of E-cadherin expression (r = -0.84, p value = 0.02) in BPH tissues, concomitant with the upregulation of HIF-1a—a hypoxia marker protein (Additional file 1: Fig. S2G). This evidence concerns the gene VIM and benign prostatic hyperplasia.