HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha ChIP-chip profiling in intestinal epithelial cells

Intestinal epithelia exist in a uniquely dynamic oxygen tension microenvironment. Adaptive responses to hypoxia in mammalian cells are regulated largely by hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) transcriptional complexes. Functional HIF exists as an obligate alpha/beta heterodimer, comprising both a constitutive subunit (HIF-1beta), and an oxygen-labile regulatory (alpha) component. To date, three regulatory subunits have been identified, namely HIF-1alpha, HIF-2alpha, and HIF-3alpha, with the highest level of sequence homology conserved between HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha. Despite their concurrent expression in intestinal epithelial cells, HIF-1 and HIF-2 play non-redundant roles in the regulation of an overlapping but distinct set of gene targets. In this study, we performed ChIP-on-chip analysis of chromatin isolated from hypoxic intestinal epithelia to delineate HIF-1 and HIF-2 specific loci. Comparison of HIF-1alpha ChIP-chip and HIF-2alpha ChIP-chip to map HIF-1- and HIF-2-specific gene targets across the genome.