YAP mediate hypoxia-induced pancreatic cancer cells invasion and migration via promoting survivin expression

Hypoxia microenvironment is considered to be a contributing factor to tumor invasion and metastasis. However, the molecular mechanism whereby hypoxia contributes to these events has not been completely elucidated. Here we showed that two pancreatic cancer (PC) cells, Panc-1 and SW1990, display different invasive and migratory abilities under hypoxia conditions (1%O2). We also showed that YAP activation was required as an important role to switch on hypoxia-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and invasion of PC cells upon hypoxia. Additionly, we found that YAP activation induced survivin expression; specific inhibition of survivin could reduce EMT and suppress the invasion and migration of PC cells. In conclusion, hypoxia promotes PC cells (Panc-1 and SW1990) invasion and migration via YAP/survivin pathway, which may be a new therapeutic target of pancreatic cancer.