Fig. 2
Hypoxia amplified HGF/MET signaling and augmented HCC cells invasion induced by HGF compared with normoxia. a Western blot detected the total-MET, P-MET and nuclear HIF-1α expression levels in HCC cells transfected with HIF-1α siRNA or NC siRNA incubated in normoxia (20% O2) or hypoxia (1% O2) for 24 h. b The total-MET levels in hypoxia-treated HCC cell lines transfected with HIF-1α siRNA or NC siRNA were detected by RT-PCR. c The total-MET, P-MET and nuclear HIF-1α protein levels were detected by Western blot in HCC cells incubated in normoxia (20% O2) or hypoxia (1% O2) conditions after stimulation with low concentration of HGF (1 ng/ml) for 24 h. d HCC cells seeded onto a layer of Matrigel were serum-starved and incubated in normoxia or hypoxia. After 24 h, cells were stimulated with HGF(10 ng/ml) in the same conditions for additional 24 h. The chemotactic index was calculated as the ratio of the number of cells that migrated to different amboceptor-containing wells divided by the number of cells that migrated to cultured medium alone. e The Kaplan–Meier survival curve of HCC patients with low (Tumor/Peritumor< 2-fold, n = 63) and high (Tumor/Peritumor≥2-fold, n = 46) transcriptional levels of MET. Data are shown as the mean ± SD. Significant differences were determined using one-way ANOVA. *: P < 0.05; **: P < 0.01; NS: No Significance