HIF-1α was involved in visfatin induced up regulation of Snail. (a) MG-63 and U2OS cells were transfected with vector or pcDNA/visfatin for 24 h, the mRNA expression of Snail was measured; MG-63 (b) or U2OS (c) cells were transfected with vector or pcDNA/visfatin for 24 h, the mRNA of HIF-1α, Gli1 and YY1 was measured; (d) MG-63 cells were transfected with si-NC or si-RNAs for HIF-1α for 24 h, the expression of HIF-1α was measured by western blot analysis. The si-HIF-1α-2 was used for next studies; (e) MG-63 cells were transfected with si-NC, si-HIF-1α, vector, or pcDNA/visfatin alone or together for 24 h, the expression of Snail and HIF-1α was measured by use of western blot analysis. Data were presented as means ± SD of three independent experiments. ** p < 0.01 compared with control.