Mechanisms of hypoxia-induced tumor necrosis factor-α production in rat alveolar macrophages

AIM: To study the effect of hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) on tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) production in rat alveolar macrophages cultured under hypoxic condition. METHODS: Using HIF-1α decoy inhibiting its function, Immunohistochemistry, Western blot, semiquantitative RT-PCR and ELISA were used to determine the expression of HIF-1α protein and mRNA and the production of TNF-α in rat alveolar macrophages cultured under hypoxic condition (3% O2, 5% CO2, 92% N2), respectively. RESULTS: Expression of HIF-1α was positive in cultured macrophage nucleoli in hypoxia group and HIF-1α decoy group but it was negative in nomoxic control group. The content of HIF-1α protein in hypoxia group and HIF-1α decoy group were significantly higher than that in nomoxic control group (P<0.05). The content of HIF-1α mRNA in hypoxia group and HIF-1α decoy group were markedly higher than that in nomoxic control group (P<0.05), respectively. The content of TNF-α in hypoxia group (115±17 ng/L) was higher than that in control group ［（69±13） ng/L, P<0.05］ and HIF-1α decoy group ［（81±15） ng/L, P<0.05］. CONCLUSION: Hypoxia can increase significantly expression and activity of HIF-1α， which can promote the production of TNF-α in rat alveolar macrophages. It suggests that HIF-1α plays an important role in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammation-related diseases that can give rise to lung hypoxia such as COPD.