SUMMARY Acute intestinal inflammation involves early accumulation of neutrophils (PMN) followed by either resolution or progression to chronic inflammation. Based on recent evidence mucosal metabolism influences disease outcomes, we hypothesized that transmigrating PMN influence the transcriptional profile of the surrounding mucosa. Microarray studies revealed a cohort of hypoxia-responsive genes regulated by PMN-epithelial crosstalk. Transmigrating PMN rapidly depleted microenvironmental O2 sufficiently to stabilize intestinal epithelial cell hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF). Utilizing HIF reporter mice in an acute colitis model, we investigated the relative contribution of PMN and the respiratory burst to “inflammatory hypoxia” in vivo. CGD mice, lacking a respiratory burst, developed accentuated colitis compared to control, with exaggerated PMN infiltration and diminished inflammatory hypoxia. Finally, pharmacological HIF stabilization within the mucosa protected CGD mice from severe colitis. In conclusion, transcriptional imprinting by infiltrating neutrophils modulates the host response to inflammation, via localized O2 depletion, resulting in microenvironmental hypoxia and effective inflammatory resolution.

There is increasing evidence that intermittent hypoxia plays a role in the development of cardiovascular risk in obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) through the activation of inflammatory pathways. The development of translational models of intermittent hypoxia has allowed investigation of its role in the activation of inflammatory mechanisms and promotion of cardiovascular disease in OSAS. There are noticeable differences in the response to intermittent hypoxia between body tissues but the hypoxia-sensitive transcription factors hypoxia-inducible factor-1 and nuclear factor-kB appear to play a key role in mediating the inflammatory and cardiovascular consequences of OSAS. Expanding our understanding of these pathways, the cross-talk between them and the activation of inflammatory mechanisms by intermittent hypoxia in OSAS will provide new avenues of therapeutic opportunity for the disease.

Nitric oxide (NO • ) competitively inhibits oxygen consumption by mitochondria at cytochrome c oxidase and S-nitrosates thiol proteins. We developed mitochondria-targeted S-nitrosothiols (MitoSNOs) that selectively modulate and protect mitochondrial function. The exemplar MitoSNO1, produced by covalently linking an Snitrosothiol to the lipophilic triphenylphosphonium cation, was rapidly and extensively accumulated within mitochondria, driven by the membrane potential, where it generated NO • and Snitrosated thiol proteins. MitoSNO1-induced NO • production reversibly inhibited respiration at cytochrome c oxidase and increased extracellular oxygen concentration under hypoxic conditions. MitoSNO1 also caused vasorelaxation due to its NO • generation. Infusion of MitoSNO1 during reperfusion was protective against heart ischemia-reperfusion injury, consistent with a functional modification of mitochondrial proteins, such as complex I, following S-nitrosation. These results support the idea that selectively targeting NO • donors to mitochondria is an effective strategy to reversibly modulate respiration and to protect mitochondria against ischemia-reperfusion injury.nitric oxide ͉ S-nitrosation

Mitochondrial biogenesis occurs in response to increased cellular ATP demand. The mitochondrial electron transport chain requires molecular oxygen to produce ATP. Thus, increased ATP generation after mitochondrial biogenesis results in increased oxygen demand that must be matched by a corresponding increase in oxygen supply. We found that overexpression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α), which increases mitochondrial biogenesis in primary skeletal muscle cells, leads to increased expression of a cohort of genes known to be regulated by the dimeric hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), a master regulator of the adaptive response to hypoxia. PGC-1α-dependent induction of HIF target genes under physiologic oxygen concentrations is not through transcriptional coactivation of HIF or up-regulation of HIF-1α mRNA but through HIF-1α protein stabilization. It occurs because of intracellular hypoxia as a result of increased oxygen consumption after mitochondrial biogenesis. Thus, we propose that at physiologic oxygen concentrations, PGC-1α is coupled to HIF signaling through the regulation of intracellular oxygen availability, allowing cells and tissues to match increased oxygen demand after mitochondrial biogenesis with increased oxygen supply.

Hypoxia is a feature of the microenvironment in a number of chronic inflammatory conditions due to increased metabolic activity and disrupted perfusion at the inflamed site. Hypoxia contributes to inflammation through the regulation of gene expression via key oxygen-sensitive transcriptional regulators including the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) and NF-κB. Recent studies have revealed a high degree of interdependence between HIF and NF-κB signaling; however, the relative contribution of each to hypoxia-induced inflammatory gene expression remains unclear. In this study, we use transgenic mice expressing luciferase under the control of NF-κB to demonstrate that hypoxia activates NF-κB in the heart and lungs of mice in vivo. Using small interfering RNA targeted to the p65 subunit of NF-κB, we confirm a unidirectional dependence of hypoxic HIF-1α accumulation upon an intact canonical NF-κB pathway in cultured cells. Cyclooxygenase-2 and other key proinflammatory genes are transcriptionally induced by hypoxia in a manner that is both HIF-1 and NF-κB dependent, and in mouse embryonic fibroblasts lacking an intact canonical NF-κB pathway, there is a loss of hypoxia-induced inflammatory gene expression. Finally, under conditions of hypoxia, HIF-1α and the p65 subunit of NF-κB directly bind to the cyclooxygenase-2 promoter. These results implicate an essential role for NF-κB signaling in inflammatory gene expression in response to hypoxia both through the regulation of HIF-1 and through direct effects upon target gene expression.