Hypoxia-inducible Factors As Molecular Targets for Liver Diseases

Overview

Journal J Mol Med (Berl)

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2016 Apr 21

PMID 27094811

Citations 72

Authors

Cynthia Ju

Sean P Colgan

Holger K Eltzschig

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Liver disease is a growing global health problem, as deaths from end-stage liver cirrhosis and cancer are rising across the world. At present, pharmacologic approaches to effectively treat or prevent liver disease are extremely limited. Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is a transcription factor that regulates diverse signaling pathways enabling adaptive cellular responses to perturbations of the tissue microenvironment. HIF activation through hypoxia-dependent and hypoxia-independent signals have been reported in liver disease of diverse etiologies, from ischemia-reperfusion-induced acute liver injury to chronic liver diseases caused by viral infection, excessive alcohol consumption, or metabolic disorders. This review summarizes the evidence for HIF stabilization in liver disease, discusses the mechanistic involvement of HIFs in disease development, and explores the potential of pharmacological HIF modifiers in the treatment of liver disease.

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