Hypoxia induces the overexpression of microRNA-21 in pancreatic cancer cells

Abstract Background Pancreatic cancer cells exist in a hypoxic microenvironment containing numerous factors that impact tumor survival, proliferation, and metastasis. MicroRNAs (miRs) are differentially expressed in cancer but also altered by hypoxia. We hypothesized that hypoxia could induce expression of miR-21, an oncomir in pancreatic cancer cells. Materials and methods We examined how hypoxia regulates miR-21 expression in pancreatic cancer cell lines (BxPC-3, AsPC-1) by stem-loop RT-PCR. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays were used to study how hypoxia alters hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α binding to the hypoxia response element of miR-21. BxPC-3 and AsPC-1 cells were transfected with a constitutively stable HIF-1α subunit or vector control (pcDNA3.1) to determine the influence of miR-21 in normoxia. The effect of mature miR-21 sense and antisense oligonucleotides on proliferation and apoptosis in hypoxic and normoxic conditions was assessed via WST-1 assay and flow cytometry. Results MiR-21 levels increased in all cell lines grown in hypoxic conditions versus normoxia, whereas siRNA targeting HIF-1α reduced miR-21 expression. Hypoxic conditions resulted in direct binding of HIF-1α to the predicted binding site in miR-21. Transfection with a constitutively stable HIF-1α expression plasmid in normoxia resulted in upregulated miR-21, similar to that seen in hypoxia. Cells transfected with antisense constructs targeting miR-21 had reduced proliferation and increased apoptosis in normoxia, whereas miR-21 overexpression abrogated hypoxia-associated reductions in proliferation. Conclusions MiR-21 is induced by hypoxia in pancreatic cancer cells via HIF-1α upregulation. MiR-21 overexpression allows cells to avoid apoptosis in a hypoxic microenvironment. Inhibition of miR-21 expression may increase cellular susceptibility to hypoxia in pancreatic cancer.