Effect of hypoxia on the Twist1 in EMT of cervical cancer cells.

Abstract

To explore the effect of hypoxia on the Twist1 expression in epithelial-mesenchymal transition of the cervical cancer cells. In this study, we simulated the normoxia and hypoxia environment, where HeLa cells were cultured, respectively. Cell invasion ability was measured by the transwell assay, while the GLI-1 protein and mRNA expressions were measured by Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot assays. After that, HeLa cells were transfected with the GLI-1-specific siRNA, followed by the measurement of mRNA and protein expressions using RT-PCR and Western blot assays, as well as the cell invasion ability by the transwell assay. We found that in hypoxic environment, GLI-1 was up-regulated in HeLa cells, with enhanced invasion ability. However, silencing the expression of GLI-1 could reverse the up-regulation of GLI-1 compromising the invasion ability of HeLa cells. Hypoxia may account for the increased invasion of HeLa cells, which is realized by the up-regulated GLI-1.