Hypoxia Up-regulates HIF Expression While Suppressing Cell Growth and NOTCH Activity in Leukaemia Cells

To examine the influence of hypoxia on the in vitro growth of leukaemia cells and the activity of signalling proteins to better understand the pathophysiology of leukaemia cells in human bone marrow.

Six human leukaemia cell lines were cultured under normoxic or hypoxic conditions. Cell growth, recovery of clonogenic cells, and the expression and activation of various signalling proteins were examined.

Hypoxia suppressed cell growth and the recovery of clonogenic cells. Moreover, hypoxia up-regulated hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) 1α and HIF2α expression while suppressing the expression and activation of NOTCH1, mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase (mTOR) activation, and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) phosphorylation.

We found that hypoxia up-regulated HIF expression while it suppressed the self-renewal capacity of leukaemia cells, NOTCH activity, and expression of its down-stream signalling molecules, which differs from previous reports mentioning that HIF activates NOTCH signalling. Our findings serve to further elucidate the in vivo pathophysiology of leukaemia cells.