Influence of basic fibroblast growth factor on the growth of HeLa cells and the expression of angiogenin

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is closely involved in angiogenesis and tumor growth of various cancers, but its role in cervical cancer remains to be defined. We investigated the effects of bFGF on HeLa cell growth and studied its influence on the expression of angiogenin. We transfected the bFGF gene in the sense and antisense orientation into HeLa cells, and obtained stable bFGF underexpressing and overexpressing transfectants. In our experiments, we demonstrated that inhibition of bFGF gene and protein expression in the bFGF antisense transfectants induced increased protein expression of angiogenin. In contrast, in the bFGF sense transfectants the expression of angiogenin decreased. Delivery of recombinant angiogenin into transfected and control cells led to increased proliferation in the bFGF antisense transfectants and the control cells. However, the cell proliferation had no change in the bFGF sense transfectants. In conclusion, we demonstrated that besides its angiogenic activity, bFGF and angiogenin also directly contribute to HeLa cell proliferation. Furthermore, endogenous bFGF affects the expression of angiogenin in HeLa cells. These findings suggest that inhibition of bFGF alone is not a promising strategy to inhibit angiogenesis.