Effect Of Silencing HIF-1α By RNA Interference On Human Breast Carcinoma Cell Line

Background HIF-1 (hypoxia-inducible factor-1) is an important oxygen-dependent transcriptional factor. HIF-1 controls the expression of a variety of genes, the protein products of which play crucial roles in energy metabolism, cell cycle arrest, cell survival , cell proliferation, angiogenesis, vascular constrition and dilation, erythropoiesis, tumorigenesis, tumor metastasis and drug resistance. Majority of tumor have hypoxia environment. Adaptation to hypoxia environment is a key step in the process of tumorigenesis. HIF-1 is the major transcriptional factor responsible for the process. The expression of HIF-1 is constitutively up-regulated in several tumor types. HIF-1 improves the tumor cell energy metablism, angiogenesis, tumor cell proliferation and tumor metastasis. Therefore, HIF-1 becomes an important target for cancer therapy. Recently, RNA interference has...