HIF-1α Promotes the Metastasis of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Targeting SP1

Xueting Hu; Jiatong Lin; Ming Jiang; Xiaotian He; Kefeng Wang; Wenjian Wang; Chuwen Hu; Zhiwen Shen; Zhanghai He; Huayue Lin; Duoguang Wu; Minghui Wang

doi:10.7150/jca.35537

HIF-1α Promotes the Metastasis of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Targeting SP1

J Cancer. 2020 Jan 1;11(1):229-240. doi: 10.7150/jca.35537. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Xueting Hu^{1

2}, Jiatong Lin^{1

2}, Ming Jiang³, Xiaotian He^{1

2}, Kefeng Wang^{1

2}, Wenjian Wang^{1

2}, Chuwen Hu^{1

2}, Zhiwen Shen^{1

2}, Zhanghai He^{1

2}, Huayue Lin^{1

4}, Duoguang Wu^{1

2}, Minghui Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China 510120.
² Department of Thoracic Surgery, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China 510120.
³ Department of Thoracic Surgery, Affiliated Cancer Hospital & Institute of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China 510120.
⁴ Breast Tumor Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China 510120.

Abstract

Background: In microenvironment of malignant tumors, Hypoxia-Inducible Factors (HIF), most importantly HIF-1α, play an important role in regulation of adaptive biological response to hypoxia, promoting angiogenesis and metastasis. However, the underlying mechanism that HIF-1α regulates metastasis needs to be further clarified. Methods: The expressions of HIF-1α and SP1 were detected in 182 samples of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and adjacent normal tissues by immunohistochemistry (IHC), and the correlation between the expression levels of HIF-1α and SP1 was analyzed. The expression of HIF-1α in ESCC cell lines TE1 and KYSE30 was then detected using qRT-PCR and western blot. The potential binding sites of HIF-1α on the SP1 promoter were analyzed using UCSC and JASPAR databases, verified by chromosomal immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay and qRT-PCR. The effects of HIF-1α and SP1 on ESCC cell migration and invasion were then tested with Transwell and Matrigel experiments. Results: The expression of HIF-1α in cancer tissues is higher than adjacent normal tissues, and is correlated with metastasis, recurrence and poor prognosis. Upon silencing HIF-1α by siRNA, the invasion and migration ability of ESCC cells were significantly inhibited, which could be restored by the overexpression of SP1. Hypoxic conditions significantly increased the expression of HIF-1α and SP1 at both protein and mRNA levels in ESCC cells. HIF-1α enhanced SP1 transcription through binding to the promoter region. The expression of protein and mRNA levels of SP1 was decreased by silencing HIF-1α in cells. In contrast, overexpression of HIF-1α significantly increased the mRNA and protein levels of SP1. The expression of SP1 in ESCC was positively correlated with the protein expression of HIF-1α and poor prognosis. Conclusion: The results of our study indicate that HIF-1α promotes metastasis of ESCC by targeting SP1 in a hypoxic microenvironment. Further study on this mechanism may elucidate the possibility of HIF-1α and SP1 as new targets for the treatment of ESCC.

Keywords: ESCC; HIF-1α; SP1; tumor metastasis.