Role of HIF-1 in Immune Reactions

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Another symptom of inflammation is local heat. Katschinski and coauthors (67) reported that elevated temperature (42°C) is able to induce the nonphos-phorylated form of HIF-1 a under normoxic conditions in HepG2 cells. Furthermore, in mice with elevated body temperature (rectal temperature 41°C) HIF-la accumulated in kidney and liver and remained stable for several hours after recooling to normal body temperature. Thus implies a novel mechanism that stabilizes HIF-la under elevated temperatures, possibly via interaction with HSP90 (67). 

Clearly, this review is far from providing a complete summary of all articles touching the field of normoxic HlF-la induction. As mentioned at the beginning, all normoxic HIF-la-inducing chemical compounds are omitted in the discussion as well as the HIF-la-interacting proteins. But considering the complete menu presented here, it becomes evident that HIF-1 is much more than only a hypoxia-inducible transcription factor. 

Jiang BH, Rue E, Wang GL, Roe R, Semenza GL. Dimerization, DNA binding, and transactivation properties of hypoxia-inducible factor 1. J Biol Chem 1996 271 17771-17778. 

Jiang H, Guo R, Powell-Coffinan JA. The Caenorhabditis elegans hif-1 gene encodes a bHLH-PAS protein that is required for adaptation to hypoxia. Proc Nad Acad Sci USA 2001 98 7916-7921. 

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