The pro-migration and anti-apoptosis effects of HMGA2 in HUVECs stimulated by hypoxia

Abstract

ABSTRACT High-mobility group AT-hook2 (HMGA2), serving as an architectural transcription factor, participates in plenty of biological processes. Our study is aimed at illustrating the effect of HMGA2 on hypoxia-induced HUVEC injury and the underlying mechanism. To induce hypoxia-related cell injury, HUVECs were exposed to hypoxic condition for 12–24 h. Molecular expression was determined by Western blot analysis, real-time PCR and immunofluorescence staining. Cell migration was monitored by wound healing assay and Transwell chamber assay. Cell proliferation and apoptosis were measured by MTT assay kits and TUNEL staining. In this study, we discovered that HMGA2 was upregulated in hypoxia-induced HUVECs. Overexpression of HMGA2 promoted cell migration, decreased the apoptosis ratio in response to hypoxia stimulation, while HMGA2 knockdown inhibited cell migration and accelerated apoptosis in HUVECs under hypoxic condition. Mechanistically, we found that HMGA2 induced increased expression of HIF-1α,VEGF, eNOS and AKT. eNOS knockdown significantly reduced HMGA2-mediated pro-migration effects, and AKT knockdown strikingly counteracted HMGA2-mediated anti-apoptotic effect. Hence, our data indicated that HMGA2 promoted cell migration by regulating HIF-1α/VGEF/eNOS signaling and prevented cell apoptosis by activating HIF-1α/VGEF/AKT signaling in HUVECs.