The effects of hypoxia on the invasion and the related protein expression of Hela cells and the role of hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) were investigated.The Hela cells were divided into three groups, namely, Ho (non-transfected Hela cells), H1 (pGenesil-1 empty plasmid-transfected Hela cells), and H2 (HIF-1α-shRNA plasmid-transfected Hela cells), and were cultured under hypoxia (1% O2) and normoxia for 48 b. The expression of HIF-1α, E-cadherin, β-catenin, and actin was detected using Weste blot. The scratch test and the invasion assay were applied to examine the invasion in each group. The expression of HIF-1α, E-cadherin, and β-catenin in tumor grafts was assayed immunohistochemically. Weste blot results revealed that the bands of HIF-1α, E-cadherin, β-catenin, and actin proteins were detected in the H0 and H1groups under hypoxia for 48 h. The expression of Ecadherin, β-catenin, and actin was detected in the H2 group under hypoxia for 48 h, and normoxia. In the H0, H1, and H2 groups under normoxia, and the H2 group under hypoxia for 48 h, no expression of HIF-1α was detectable.The scratch test showed that the invasive ability in the H2group was significantly alleviated. Immunohistochemically, it was found that there was a significant difference in the expression of HIF-1α, E-cadherin, and β-catenin between the H1 and H2 groups (P<0.05), but the difference was not significant between the H0 and H1 groups. It was concluded that the effects of hypoxia on the invasion of human cervical cancer Hela cells and the expression of related proteins (E-cadherin, β-catenin, and actin) depend on HIF-1α.