Down-regulation of hepatocyte growth factor mRNA in rat cardiac myocytes under hypoxia mimicked by cobalt chloride.

Abstract

Hypoxia is generally considered to represent a fundamental stimulus for angiogenesis. Most angiogenic factors were up-regulated by hypoxia, but as a strong angiogenic and antiapoptotic factor, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) was down-regulated by hypoxia. In order to investigate whether hypoxia inducible factor 1a (HIF-1alpha) participate in the transcriptional regulation of HGF under hypoxia, rat cardiac myocytes were treated with cobalt chloride (CoCl2), the specific inducer of HIF-1alpha, for different times, and total RNA and protein were isolated to perform RT-PCR and Western blot. Results show the expression of HGF mRNA in cardiac myocytes decreased distinctively after treating with CoCl2 for 12 hours. However, at the same time, the expression of HIF-1alpha protein was up-regulated. HIF-1alpha may be participate in the transcriptional regulation of HGF indirectly.