Objective: To explore the effect of dominant negative HIF-1alpha (dn HIF-1alpha) on biological characteristics of uterine cervix cancer cell SiHa and elucidate the related mechanism.
Methods: pcDNA3. 1-dn HIF-1alpha was transfected into SiHa cells. The expression of HIF-1alpha and VEGF protein were detected by immunocytochemical method and Western Blotting. The growth proliferation of cells was surveyed by the MTT assay and cell apoptosis was detected through TUNEL after treated with CoCl2, meanwhile the results were compared with the group transfected with mock plasmid and untransfected group.
Results: After successfully transfected with relevant plasmid, there's no obvious difference of expression of HIF-1alpha among dn HIF-1alpha group, pcDNA3. 1 group, and untransfected group, however the expression of VEGF of dn HIF-1alpha group was significantly lower than that of the others (P < 0. 05). The proliferation ability of dn HIF-1alpha group was obviously lower than that of the other two (P < 0.05), whether it was under normoxia or chemical hypoxia induced by CoCl2. The characteristic apoptotic morphology was most significantly apparent in dn HIF-1alpha group among these three (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: Domain negative HIF-1alpha can inhibit the proliferation of uterine cervix cancer cell and accelerate its apoptosis under hypoxia induced by CoCl2, as well as decrease the expression of VEGF protein. The implications of all this were that the domain negative HIF-1alpha may play an important role in the therapy of uterine cervix cancer.