Ectopic expression of von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor induces apoptosis in 786-O renal cell carcinoma cells and regresses tumor growth of 786-O cells in nude mouse

The von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) is a known tumor suppressor that binds to alpha-subunits of hypoxia-inducible factors and induces ubiquitin-mediated degradation of the protein in an oxygen-dependent manner. VHL is also involved in the regulation of tumor angiogenesis, glycolysis, cell cycle regulation, and apoptosis. In the present study, we showed that ectopic expression of VHL induces apoptosis in renal cell carcinoma 786-O cells which contain only the mutant VHL, evidenced by TUNEL assay and DAPI staining. Furthermore, biochemical studies indicated that expression of VHL in 786-O cells results in both PARP and CPP32 cleavage, suggesting that VHL-induced apoptosis in 786-O cells is caspase dependent. Moreover, we also observed that apoptosis induced by ectopic VHL expression was associated with up-regulation of p27 as well as Bax, implicating the roles of these two proteins in VHL-induced apoptosis. The up-regulation of p27 and Bax by VHL was specific since we did not detect any changes in the level of other apoptotic factors including Fas and Bcl2 by the expression of VHL. We next examined the effect of VHL expression on the tumor growth of 786-O renal cell carcinoma cells in nude mouse. The results showed that injection of Ad.VHL adenovirus regresses the tumor growth of 786-O cells in nude mouse. The analysis by TUNEL assay as well as DAPI staining of 786-O tumors injected with Ad.VHL showed clear evidence of apoptosis. These results suggest that ectopic VHL expression induces apoptotic response in 786-O VHL mutant cells both in vitro and in vivo.     

Regulation of HIF prolyl hydroxylases by hypoxia-inducible factors

Hypoxia and induction of hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha) is a hallmark of many tumors. Under normal oxygen tension HIF-alpha subunits are rapidly degraded through prolyl hydroxylase dependent interaction with the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor protein, a component of E3 ubuiquitin ligase complex. Using microarray analysis of VHL mutated and re-introduced cells, we found that one of the prolyl hydroxylases (PHD3) is coordinately expressed with known HIF target genes, while the other two family members (PHD1 and 2) did not respond to VHL. We further tested the regulation of these genes by HIF-1 and HIF-2 and found that siRNA targeted degradation of HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha results in decreased hypoxia-induced PHD3 expression. Ectopic overexpression of HIF-2alpha in two different cell lines provided a much better induction of PHD3 gene than HIF-1alpha. In contrast, we demonstrate that PHD2 is not affected by overexpression or downregulation of HIF-2alpha. However, induction of PHD2 by hypoxia has HIF-1-independent and -dependent components. Short-term hypoxia (4 h) results in induction of PHD2 independent of HIF-1, while PHD2 accumulation by prolonged hypoxia (16 h) was decreased by siRNA-mediated degradation of HIF-1alpha subunit. These data further advance our understanding of the differential role of HIF factors and putative feedback loop in HIF regulation.     

Mammalian tumor suppressor Int6 specifically targets hypoxia inducible factor 2 alpha for degradation by hypoxia- and pVHL-independent regulation

The hypoxia-inducible factors HIF-1 alpha and HIF-2 alpha are structurally similar as regards their DNA-binding and dimerization domains, but differ in their transactivation domains and, as is shown by experiments using hif-1 alpha(-/-) and hif-2 alpha(-/-) mice, in their functions. This implies that HIF-1 alpha and HIF-2 alpha may have unique target genes. To address this discrepancy and identify HIF-2 alpha-specific target genes, we performed yeast two-hybrid analysis and identified the tumor suppressor Int6/eIF3e/p48 as a novel target gene product involved in HIF-2 alpha regulation. The int6 gene was first identified from a screen in which the mouse mammary tumor virus was employed as an insertional mutagen to identify genes whose functions are critical for breast tumor formation. Here, by using two-hybrid analysis, immunoprecipitation in mammalian cells, and HRE-reporter assays, we report the specific interaction of HIF-2 alpha (but not HIF-1 alpha or HIF-3 alpha) with Int6. The results indicate that the direct interaction of Int6 induces proteasome inhibitor-sensitive HIF-2 alpha degradation. This degradation was clearly observed in renal cell carcinoma 786-O cells, and was found to be both hypoxia- and pVHL-independent. Furthermore, Int6 protein knockdown by int6-siRNA vectors or the dominant-negative mutant Int6-Delta C increased endogenous HIF-2 alpha expression, even under normoxia, and induced sets of critical angiogenic factors comprising vascular endoplasmic growth factor, angiopoietin, and basic fibroblast growth factor mRNA. These results indicate that Int6 is a novel and critical determinant of HIF-2 alpha-dependent angiogenesis as well as cancer formation, and that int6-siRNA transfer may be an effective therapeutic strategy in pathological conditions such as heart and brain ischemia, hepatic cirrhosis, and obstructive vessel diseases.     

Mechanism of regulation of the hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha by the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor protein

In normoxic cells the hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) is rapidly degraded by the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, and activation of HIF-1 alpha to a functional form requires protein stabilization. Here we show that the product of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene mediated ubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation of HIF-1 alpha under normoxic conditions via interaction with the core of the oxygen-dependent degradation domain of HIF-1 alpha. The region of VHL mediating interaction with HIF-1 alpha overlapped with a putative macromolecular binding site observed within the crystal structure of VHL. This motif of VHL also represents a mutational hotspot in tumors, and one of these mutations impaired interaction with HIF-1 alpha and subsequent degradation. Interestingly, the VHL binding site within HIF-1 alpha overlapped with one of the minimal transactivation domains. Protection of HIF-1 alpha against degradation by VHL was a multistep mechanism, including hypoxia-induced nuclear translocation of HIF-1 alpha and an intranuclear hypoxia-dependent signal. VHL was not released from HIF-1 alpha during this process. Finally, stabilization of HIF-1 alpha protein levels per se did not totally bypass the need of the hypoxic signal for generating the transactivation response.     

HIF-2α downregulation in the absence of functional VHL is not sufficient for renal cell differentiation

Background  

Mutational inactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene has been linked to hereditary as well as sporadic clear cell renal carcinomas. The product of the VHL gene, pVHL, acts to target hypoxia-inducible factor alpha (HIF-α) subunits for ubiquitination and subsequent degradation. Using an RNA interference approach to lower levels of HIF-2α in two different renal cell lines that lack functional pVHL, we have tested the contribution of HIF-2α toward cellular pVHL activities.     

HIF-1alpha, HIF-2alpha and VHL mRNA expression in different cell lines during hypoxia

Hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) mRNA expression is significantly decreased under hypoxia in different cell lines exposed directly to hypoxia or treated with dimethyloxalylglycine which mimics hypoxic effects under normoxic conditions. However, the decreased expression of HIF-1alpha mRNA is accompanied by an increase of HIF-1alpha protein (pHIF-1alpha) level as well as by overexpression of known HIF-dependent genes (VEGF, Glut1, PFKFB-3 and PFKFB-4) under hypoxic conditions or with the use of dimethyloxalylglycine. Expression of HIF-1alpha mRNA also depends on iron because desferrioxamine and cobalt chloride produce similar to hypoxia effects on the levels of this mRNA. It was shown that HIF-1alpha mRNA expression did not change significantly in some cell lines (SKBR3, MDA-MB468 and BT549) under hypoxia. However, in these cell lines hypoxia decreases expression of HIF-2alpha mRNA, another member of HIF-alpha gene family, as a result of cell specific regulation of HIF-alpha genes under hypoxia. Moreover, hypoxia slightly induces expression of PFKFB-4 mRNA in SKBR3, MDA-MB468 and BT549 as compared to other cell lines where this effect of hypoxia was much stronger and adaptation to hypoxia is controlled by HIF-1alpha. Hypoxia slightly reduces expression of tumor suppressor VHL which targets HIF-1alpha for ubiquitination. Thus, our results clearly demonstrated down regulation of HIF-1alpha or HIF-2alpha in different cell lines by hypoxia.     

The Positive Regulation of p53 by the Tumor Suppressor VHL

The ubiquitin-mediated degradation of hypoxia-inducible factor-α (HIF-α) by a von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor protein (pVHL) is mechanistically responsible for controlling gene expression due to oxygen availability. Germline mutations in the VHL gene cause dysregulation of HIF and induce an autosomal dominant cancer syndrome referred to as VHL disease. However, it is unclear whether HIF accumulation caused by VHL mutations is sufficient for tumorigenesis. Recently, we found that pVHL directly associates and positively regulates the tumor suppressor p53 by inhibiting Mdm2-mediated ubiquitination, and by subsequently recruiting p53-modifying enzymes. Moreover, VHL-deleted RCC cells showed attenuated apoptosis or abnormal cell-cycle arrest upon DNA damage, but became normal when pVHL was restored. Thus, pVHL appears to play a pivotal role in tumor suppression by participating actively as a component of p53 transactivation complex during DNA damage response.