Does selective HIF-1 blockade reverse tissue hypoxia and injury in murine models of lupus?
Targeting HIF-1 reverses tissue hypoxia and T cell-mediated injury in murine lupus nephritis, highlighting a potential therapeutic approach for autoimmune renal diseases.
T cells express hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), which alters their cellular metabolism and prevents their apoptosis in hypoxia. HIF-1-dependent gene-regulated pathways were also up-regulated in renal-infiltrating T cells in human lupus nephritis. Perturbation of these environmental adaptations by selective HIF-1 blockade inhibited infiltrating T cells and reversed tissue hypoxia and injury in murine models of lupus. The results suggest that targeting HIF-1 might be effective for treating renal injury in autoimmune diseases.
Chen et al. (Wed,) studied this question.