KLF2 inhibits cell growth via regulating HIF-1α/Notch-1 signal pathway in human colorectal cancer HCT116 cells

The transcription factor Krtippel-like factor 2 (KLF2) has been shown to function as a tumor suppressor and regulate biological processes of cancer cells, such as cell growth, cell apoptosis and angiogenesis. However, the function and mechanism of KLF2 in colorectal cancer (CRC) is still unknown. In the present study, we show that the expression of KLF2 is diminished in a cohort of CRC cell lines. Also, KLF2 overexpression remarkably inhibits HCT116 and SW480 cell survival and proliferation. Moreover, cell death detection ELISA plus assay showed that KLF2 overexpression increased HCT116 cell proliferation. Caspase-3/7 activity also increased in HCT116 cells transfected with PcDNA3.1-KLF2. Further studies showed that KLF2 significantly suppresses the expression of Notch-1 and is dependent on the decline of the HIF-1 alpha level. Most importantly, silencing Notch-1 expression or HIF-1 alpha level both impair the action of KLF2 overexpression in CRC cells. Collectively, we demonstrated that KLF2 mediates CRC cell biological processes including cell growth and apoptosis via regulating the HIF-1 alpha/Notch-1 signal pathway. These results indicated that KLF2 plays an important role in CRC and provided novel insight on the function of KLF2 in tumor progression.