Fig. 3
High HIF-1α expression promotes cell invasion, migration and EMT by regulating LOXL2 expression. a and b, The invasion and migration ability of HCC cells were decreased following HIF-1α knockdown and increased by LOXL2 overexpression; while shLOXL2 decreased invasion and migration ability, all groups treated with CoCl2 (a, ×100; bars, 100 μm) and (b,×40; bars, 100 μm). c and d, HepG2 and Bel7402 cells treated with CoCl2 were cotransfected with shHIF-1α and LOXL2 or the control vector and then western bolt and qRT-PCR assays were used to test the restoration of LOXL2 protein by LOXL2 plasmids in the presence of shHIF-1α. While HepG2 and Bel7402 cells were transfected with shLOXL2 plasmids or the control vector and then western bolt and qRT-PCR assays were used to test the restoration of LOXL2 protein by shLOXL2 in the presence of high HIF-1α expression. At the same time, expression of the epithelial protein E-cadherin and the mesenchymal protein vimentin in shHIF-1α transfected HepG2 and Bel7402 cells and LOXL2 stably transfected HepG2 and Bel7402 cells was detected by Western blot. qRT-PCR was used to detect mRNA expression. β-actin and GAPDH were used as loading controls. Error bars represent SD and *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01