Hypoxia

By Jamshed Arslan Pharm.D.

By Jamshed Arslan Pharm.D.

By Jamshed Arslan Pharm.D.

By Yoskaly Lazo-Fernandez, PhD

By Jamshed Arslan Pharm.D.

By Bethany Veo, PhD

Hypoxia is a common feature of most tumors and is a product of rapid cell growth and poor vascularization¹. When oxygen availability is low in the tumor environment, the hypoxia inducing transcription factors (HIFs) regulate a variety of signaling programs that can affect the balance between tumor cell apoptosis² and autophagy³.  In normoxia, HIFs are bound by the von Hippel-Lindau protein (VHL) in the cytosol where it is degraded by the proteasome, however, under hypoxia HIFs are translocated to the nucleus where they activate survival signals.

Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) is the trans-differentiation of stationary epithelial cells into motile mesenchymal cells. During EMT, epithelial cells lose their junctions and apical-basal polarity, reorganize their cytoskeleton, undergo a change in the signaling cascade that defines cell shape and reprograms gene expression. Collectively, these changes increase the motility of individual cells and enables the development of an invasive phenotype.

Tips on positive and negative controls for HIF-1 alpha antibodies is one of the most Frequently Asked Questions on Hypoxia and HIFs. Here are top 5 suggestions from Novus Biologicals:

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a natural process by which epithelial cells lose their polarity and intercellular adhesion, and gain the migratory invasive properties of mesenchymal stem cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types. EMT is critical to many developmental processes including embryo development and wound healing. However, EMT is also a fundamental step in the initiation of metastasis during cancer progression.