HISTOLOGY AND HISTOPATHOLOGY

Cellular and Molecular Biology

 

Review

Grow2: The HIF system, energy homeostasis and the cell cycle

Sónia Moniz, John Biddlestone and Sónia Rocha

Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression, College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dow Street, Dundee, UK

Offprint requests to: Dr. Sónia Rocha, Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression, College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dow Street, Dundee UK, DD1 5EH. e-mail: s.rocha@dundee.ac.uk


Summary. Cell cycle progression is an energy demanding process and requires fine-tuned metabolic regulation. Cells must overcome an energy restriction checkpoint before becoming committed to progress through the cell cycle. Aerobic organisms need oxygen for the metabolic conversion of nutrients into energy. As such, environmental oxygen is a critical signalling molecule regulating cell fate. The Hypoxia Inducible Factors (HIFs) are a family of transcription factors that respond to changes in environmental oxygen and cell energy and coordinate a transcriptional program which forms an important part of the cellular response to a hostile environment. A significant proportion of HIF-dependent transcriptional target genes, code for proteins that are involved in energy homeostasis. In this review we discuss the role of the HIF system in the regulation of energy homeostasis in response to changes in environmental oxygen and the impact on cell cycle control, and address the implications of the deregulation of this effect in cancer. Histol Histopathol 29, 589-600 (2014)

Key words: Hypoxia, HIF-system, Energy homeostasis, Cell cycle, Cancer

DOI: 10.14670/HH-29.10.589