HYPOXIA AND THE REGULATION OF VASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH FACTOR IN HUMAN LUNG CANCER CELL LINES

Objective To investigate the influence hypoxia on the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression and its mechanism.Methods The expression of VEGF mRNA and protein in four hypoxia-treated human lung cancer cell lines (A549,A1,A7,A8) were tested determined by using semiquantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemcal staining. Results Semiquantitative RT-PCR demonstrated that the amount of VEGF mRNA in cells treated by hypoxia increased markedly when compared with that of control lines and the above results was confirmed by immunohistochemical staining. Besides, 3 VEGF isoforms(VEGF 121,165 and 189) could also be detected by semiquantitative RT-PCR.Conclusion These data that VEGF expression may be up-regulated by hypoxia.