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Hypoxia inducible factor--1#alpha# and leukemic cell differentiation

Chen Guoqiang, Peng Zhengang, Liu Wei, Song Liping, Jiang Yi, Huang Ying, Zhao Qian

The Department of Pathophysiology, Key Laboratory of Cell Differentiation and Apoptosis of Ministry of Education of China, School of Medical Sciences, Shanghai Jiaotong University. Shanghai 200025, China；Institute of Health Science, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Shanghai 200025, China

Abstract

Arsenic trioxide (As_(2)O_(3), ATO) is a recently developed drug for the effective treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Experimental studies showed that in vitro differentiation-inducing ability on APL cells of this drug is not significant compared with its in vivo activity. We unexpectedly found recently that hypoxia-mimetic agents and moderate real hypoxia triggered acute myeloid leukemic cells to undergo differentiation. Furthermore, intermittent hypoxia significantly prolonged the survival of the transplanted leukemic mice with inhibition of infiltration and induction of differentiation of leukemic cells. In the following works, molecular mechanisms of hypoxia-induced differentiation were investigated and some interesting results have been obtained. This review will shortly summarize the related progresses and discuss the questions remained to be further investigated.

Key words: Leukemia;Hypoxia inducible factor-1;CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-α;Arsenic trioxide;Differentiation

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Citing This Article：

Chen Guoqiang, Peng Zhengang, Liu Wei, Song Liping, Jiang Yi, Huang Ying, Zhao Qian. Hypoxia inducible factor--1#alpha# and leukemic cell differentiation. Acta Physiol Sin 2006; 58 (1): (in Chinese with English abstract).