Abstract.
All organisms respond to changes in their environment by activating complex signaling cascades. The “hypoxia-signaling cascade” is activated in response to low oxygen availability and this activation is central to maintaining oxygen homeostasis and hence to survival. By regulating the transcriptional complex hypoxia-inducible factor, hypoxia is associated with several physiopathological processes. Several strategies, based on the targeting of the hypoxia-signaling cascade, have been developed to treat these pathologies. Our review summarize different aspects of the hypoxic pathway.
Keywords. Oxygen homeostasis, hypoxia, HIF signaling, physiopathology, therapy
Footnotes
Received 11 October 2007; received after revision 21 November 2007; accepted 23 November 2007
E. Benizri, A. Ginouvès: These authors contributed equally to this work.