Early Expression of Myocardial HIF-1α in Response to Mechanical Stresses

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression is upregulated by hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) in ischemic tissues and growing tumors. Normally, HIF-1 activity depends on the amount of HIF-1alpha subunit, which is tightly regulated by the oxygen tension. In the myocardium, VEGF expression has been shown to be induced under nonhypoxic conditions by mechanical stresses. However, the cellular mechanism of stress-mediated VEGF induction remains unclear. Therefore, we examined the possible involvement of HIF-1 in stress-mediated VEGF induction in rat hearts. In this study, we increased the left ventricular wall tension using 3 different methods, namely by inducing regional ischemia, by expanding an intraventricular balloon, and by producing hemodynamic overload using an aortocaval shunt. In all cases, HIF-1alpha accumulated in the nuclei of cardiac myocytes in the early phase, and this was followed by VEGF induction. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-dependent Akt phosphorylation was found to be activated by mechanical stress and completely blocked by wortmannin (a PI3K inhibitor). Moreover, the stress-mediated induction of HIF-1alpha and VEGF was suppressed by gadolinium (a stretch-activated channel inhibitor), wortmannin, and rapamycin (a FRAP inhibitor). Our results suggest that HIF-1alpha plays an important role in the induction of VEGF in nonischemic and mechanically stressed myocardium, and that this is regulated by stretch-activated channels and the PI3K/Akt/FRAP pathway. Moreover, this signaling pathway, which induces HIF-1alpha, seems to play an important role in the adaptation of the myocardium to stresses. The full text of this article is available at http://www.circresaha.org.