Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2011, 12(7), 4705-4721; doi:10.3390/ijms12074705
Review

Epigenetics: New Questions on the Response to Hypoxia

Joel I. Perez-Perri 1,2 email, Julieta M. Acevedo 1,2 email and Pablo Wappner 1,2,3,* email
1 Instituto Leloir, Patricias Argentinas 435, Buenos Aires C1405BWE, Argentina 2 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires C1033AAJ, Argentina 3 Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (FCEyN), Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires C1428EGA, Argentina
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 22 June 2011; in revised form: 8 July 2011 / Accepted: 8 July 2011 / Published: 21 July 2011
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Chromatin Assembly)
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Abstract: Reduction in oxygen levels below normal concentrations plays important roles in different normal and pathological conditions, such as development, tumorigenesis, chronic kidney disease and stroke. Organisms exposed to hypoxia trigger changes at both cellular and systemic levels to recover oxygen homeostasis. Most of these processes are mediated by Hypoxia Inducible Factors, HIFs, a family of transcription factors that directly induce the expression of several hundred genes in mammalian cells. Although different aspects of HIF regulation are well known, it is still unclear by which precise mechanism HIFs activate transcription of their target genes. Concomitantly, hypoxia provokes a dramatic decrease of general transcription that seems to rely in part on epigenetic changes through a poorly understood mechanism. In this review we discuss the current knowledge on chromatin changes involved in HIF dependent gene activation, as well as on other epigenetic changes, not necessarily linked to HIF that take place under hypoxic conditions.
Keywords: HIF; oxygen; stress; chromatin; histone; jumonji

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MDPI and ACS Style

Perez-Perri, J.I.; Acevedo, J.M.; Wappner, P. Epigenetics: New Questions on the Response to Hypoxia. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2011, 12, 4705-4721.

AMA Style

Perez-Perri JI, Acevedo JM, Wappner P. Epigenetics: New Questions on the Response to Hypoxia. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2011; 12(7):4705-4721.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Perez-Perri, Joel I.; Acevedo, Julieta M.; Wappner, Pablo. 2011. "Epigenetics: New Questions on the Response to Hypoxia." Int. J. Mol. Sci. 12, no. 7: 4705-4721.

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