Deficiency of factor-inhibiting HIF creates a tumor-promoting immune microenvironment

Hypoxia signaling influences tumor development through both cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic pathways. Inhibiting hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) function has recently been approved as a cancer treatment strategy. Hence, it is important to understand how regulators of HIF may affect tumor growth under p...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ma, J, Al Moussawi, K, Lou, H, Chan, HF, Wang, Y, Chadwick, J, Phetsouphanh, C, Slee, EA, Zhong, S, Leissing, TM, Roth, A, Qin, X, Chen, S, Yin, J, Ratnayaka, I, Hu, Y, Louphrasitthiphol, P, Taylor, L, Bettencourt, PJG, Muers, M, Greaves, DR, McShane, H, Goldin, R, Soilleux, EJ, Coleman, ML, Ratcliffe, PJ, Lu, X
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: National Academy of Sciences 2024
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Summary:Hypoxia signaling influences tumor development through both cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic pathways. Inhibiting hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) function has recently been approved as a cancer treatment strategy. Hence, it is important to understand how regulators of HIF may affect tumor growth under physiological conditions. Here we report that in aging mice factor-inhibiting HIF (FIH), one of the most studied negative regulators of HIF, is a haploinsufficient suppressor of spontaneous B cell lymphomas, particular pulmonary B cell lymphomas. FIH deficiency alters immune composition in aged mice and creates a tumor-supportive immune environment demonstrated in syngeneic mouse tumor models. Mechanistically, FIH-defective myeloid cells acquire tumor-supportive properties in response to signals secreted by cancer cells or produced in the tumor microenvironment with enhanced arginase expression and cytokine-directed migration. Together, these data demonstrate that under physiological conditions, FIH plays a key role in maintaining immune homeostasis and can suppress tumorigenesis through a cell-extrinsic pathway.