Hypoxia inducible factors 1 and 2 are important transcriptional effectors in primary macrophages experiencing hypoxia

Ischemia exists in many diseased tissues including arthritic joints, atherosclerotic plaques and malignant tumors. Macrophages accumulate in these sites and upregulate genes in response to the hypoxia present. We used microarrays to detail the hypoxia upregulated gene in human primary macrophages. Primary macrophages were differentiated for 7 days in vitro from human peripheral blood (monocyte-derived macrophages, MDMs) and were subjected to severe hypoxia (< 0.5% O2) or normoxia (20.9% O2) in 5% CO2 humidified multi-gas incubators.