Hypoxia promotes conversion to a stem cell phenotype in prostate cancer cells by activating HIF-1α/Notch1 signaling...

The hypoxic tumor microenvironment and the maintenance of stem cells are relevant to the malignancy of prostate cancer (PCa). However, whether HIF-1α in the hypoxic microenvironment mediates the transformation of prostate cancer to a stem cell phenotype and the mechanism have not been elucidated.

Prostate cancer stem cells (PCSCs) from PC-3 cell lines were examined for the expression of CD44, CD133, ALDH1, HIF-1α, Notch1, and HES1. We observed the effect of knockdown HIF-1α in vitro and mice models and evaluated the impact of HIF-1α on the Notch1 pathway as well as stem cell dedifferentiation. The effects on sphere formation, cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle, and invasive metastasis were evaluated.

In our study, hypoxia upregulated HIF-1α expression and induced a stem cell phenotype through activation of the Notch1 pathway, leading to enhanced proliferation, invasion, and migration of PCa PC-3 cells. The knockdown of HIF-1α significantly inhibited cell dedifferentiation and the ability to proliferate, invade and metastasize. However, the inhibitory effect of knocking down HIF-1α was reversed by Jagged1, an activator of the Notch1 pathway. These findings were further confirmed in vivo, where hypoxia could enhance the tumorigenicity of xenograft tumors by upregulating the expression of HIF-1α to activate the Notch1 pathway. In addition, the expression of HIF-1α and Notch1 was significantly increased in human PCa tissues, and high expression of HIF-1α correlated with the malignancy of PCa.

In a hypoxic environment, HIF-1α promotes PCa cell dedifferentiation to stem-like cell phenotypes by activating the Notch1 pathway and enhancing the proliferation and invasive capacity of PC-3 cells.