Objective To investigate the effect of HIF-2α on proliferation, invasion and colony forming abilities of breast cancer MCF-7 cells.

Methods HIF-2α ORF/shRNA lentivirus vectors were transfected into MCF-7 cells respectively, and then we screened and gained the stable MCF-7 cell lines with HIF-2α knock up/down. The protein and mRNA expression of HIF-2α were examined by Western blot and Real-time PCR respectively. CCK-8 was used to test cell proliferative activity. Transwell migration assay was applied to test cell invasive ability. Plate clone formation assay was used to detect cell colony forming ability.

Results After the HIF-2α shRNA lentivirus infection, the expression level of HIF-2α in MCF-7 cells was decreased significantly. After the HIF-2α ORF lentivirus infection, the expression level of HIF-2α in MCF-7 cells was significantly increased. CCK8 test showed that the high expression of HIF-2α significantly promoted the proliferative activity of MCF-7 cells. Transwell migration assay showed that the high expression of HIF-2α enhanced the invasive ability of MCF-7 cells. Plate clone formation assay results displayed that the high expression of HIF-2α promoted colony forming ability of MCF-7 cells. But HIF-2α knock down in MCF-7 cells had the opposite trend.

Conclusion HIF-2α overexpression could promote the proliferation, invasion and clone formation activities of MCF-7 cells.