MicroRNA profiling of human breast cancer cell line MCF7 under conditions of hypoxia

Hypoxia results in the changes in expression of many genes, the majority of which are mediated via the transcriptional activity of the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) complex. However, other mechanisms of gene regulation by hypoxia are likely and include control of mRNA stability, regulation of mRNA translation and regulation mediated by micrornas. The aim of this study is to identify microRNAs which expression is regulated by hypoxia. We chose the breast cancer line MCF7 for study as we had previously characterised the expression of the components of the HIF system in that cell line and undertaken an extensive study of the gene expression profile in response to hypoxia, a prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor dimethyloxalylglycine and HIF-1a isoform manipulations (Eldvidge. G.P. et al. (2006) JBC, vol. 281, 22, 15215-15226).