Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) is a heterodimeric transcription factor that plays a major role in cellular adaptation to hypoxia. The mechanisms regulating HIF-1 activity occurs at multiple levels in vivo. The HIF-1a subunit is highly sensible to oxygen and is rapidly degraded by the proteasome 26S in normoxia. Activation in hypoxia occurs through a multistep process including inhibition of HIF-1a degradation, but also increase in the transactivation activity of HIF-1. Several data indicate that phosphorylation could play a role in this regulation. In this report, we investigated the role of casein kinase 2 (CK2), an ubiquitous serine/ threonine kinase, in the regulation of HIF-1 activity. Hypoxia was capable of increasing the expression of the b subunit of CK2, of inducing a relocalization of this subunit at the plasma membrane, of inducing nuclear translocation of the a subunit and of increasing CK2 activity. Three inhibitors of this kinase, DRB (5,6-dichloro-1-b-D-ribofuranosyl-benzimidazole), TBB (4,5,6,7-tetrabromotriazole) and apigenin, as well as overexpression of a partial dominant negative mutant of CK2a, were shown to inhibit HIF-1 activity as measured by a reporter assay and through hypoxiainduced VEGF and aldolase expression. This does not occur at the stabilization process since they did not affect HIF-1a protein level. DNA-binding activity was also not inhibited. We conclude that CK2 is an important regulator of HIF-1 transcriptional activity but the mechanism of this regulation remains to be determined. Since HIF-1 plays a major role in tumor angiogenesis and since CK2 has been described to be overexpressed in tumor cells, this new pathway of regulation can be one more way for tumor cells to survive. ' 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Key words: casein kinase 2; HIF-1; neoangiogenesis HIF-1 (hypoxia-inducible factor-1) is a key regulator of cell response to reduced oxygen level. In response to hypoxic conditions, HIF-1 increases the expression of downstream target genes such as erythropoietin (EPO), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and glycolytic enzymes (aldolase A, enolase-a) and mediates adaptation of cells to decreased oxygen level. 1 The role of HIF-1 in the regulation of tumor growth by hypoxia via the initiation of angiogenesis is certainly the best example of such an adaptive response. 2 Oncogene activation and tumor-suppressor inactivation result in deregulated cellular proliferation. However, most tumors grown larger than 1 mm 3 contain regions of low oxygen tension (hypoxia) due to an imbalance between oxygen supply and consumption. Formation of new blood vessels or ''neoangiogenesis'' is thus essential for further tumor growth. It is also important to allow tumor cell dissemination at distant sites, i.e., metastasis.Several studies using HIF-1 mutant cells have shown that HIF-1 has a profound effect on tumor biology. For example, tumors grown from HIF-1a-defective embryonic stem cells display abnormal vascularity and reduced growth rate. 3 Moreover, HIF-1 is upregulated in a broad r...