TWIST activation by hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1): Implications in metastasis and development
- 15 July 2008
- journal article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Cell Cycle
- Vol. 7 (14) , 2090-2096
- https://doi.org/10.4161/cc.7.14.6324
Abstract
Hypoxia is a microenvironmental factor which plays a critical role in development and tumor progression. The hypoxic response is mainly mediated by hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) composed of HIF-1alpha and HIF-1beta, which becomes active under low oxygen condition. HIF-1 activates the transcription of hypoxia inducible genes which regulate diverse cellular functions including metabolism, angiogenesis, and invasion. In cancer metastasis, HIF-1-regulated genes promote angiogenesis, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a critical step of metastasis. TWIST is a master regulator of gastrulation and mesoderm specification and is recently implicated to be essential to mediate cancer metastasis. We recently showed that HIF-1 promotes EMT through direct regulation of TWIST expression. TWIST is critical for hypoxia mediated EMT and metastasis. TWIST plays a non-redundant role in relation to other EMT regulators (e.g. Snail) under hypoxia. Co-expression of HIF-1alpha, TWIST and Snail could b...Keywords
This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: