Beclin1/PI3K-Mediated Autophagy Prevents Hypoxia-Induced Apoptosis in EAhy926 Cell Line

Abstract Although hypoxia can induce cell death, the cancer cells and endothelial cells within a solid tumor that remain active in the hypoxia microenvironment often possess an enhanced survival potential. Developing approaches aimed at increasing the sensitivity of endothelial cells to hypoxia-induced cell death represents a potentially important avenue for antiangiogenesis treatment. This study investigated approaches to increase the sensitivity of endothelial cells to hypoxia-induced apoptosis. Autophagy and apoptosis of endothelial cells induced by hypoxia were investigated by transmission electron microscopy, confocallaser microscopy, and western blotting. Moreover, cell invasion was observed by a transwell assay and F-actin quantitative analysis. In this study, it was found that hypoxia could induce both autophagy and apoptosis in hypoxia-inducible factor-1- and Beclin1-dependent endothelial cells. Hypoxia-induced autophagy was prohibited by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt inhibitor but not mitoge...