Role of hypoxia inducible factor-1α for interferon synthesis in mouse dendritic cells.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are an important link between innate and adaptive immunity. DCs get activated in inflamed tissues where oxygen tension is usually low, which requires the transcription factor hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1 for cellular adaptation. To investigate whether the HIF-1 transcriptional complex plays a pivotal role in the function of DCs, we compared the effects of exogenous inflammatory stimuli and hypoxia on HIF-1α in bone marrow-derived DCs from wild type and myeloid-specific HIF-1α knock-out mice.