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Updated: Feb 26, 2026

Induction and Testing of Hypoxia in Cell Culture
Published on: August 12, 2011
Hypoxia-Inducible Factors: Master Regulators of Cancer Progression
Luana Schito1, Gregg L Semenza2
1Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Abstract:
Intratumoral hypoxia (reduced O2 availability) is a common finding in human cancer and leads to increased activity of hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs), which regulate the expression of genes that contribute to angiogenesis, metabolic reprogramming, extracellular matrix remodeling, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, motility, invasion, metastasis, cancer stem cell maintenance, immune evasion, and resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Conventional anticancer therapies target well-oxygenated and proliferating cancer cells, whereas there are no approved therapies that target hypoxic cancer cells, despite growing clinical and experimental evidence indicating that intratumoral hypoxia is a critical microenvironmental factor driving cancer progression. In this review, our current understanding of the consequences of HIF activity and the translational potential of targeting HIFs for cancer therapy are discussed.
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