Overexpression of the long Hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-3a2 splice variant under 1 % hypoxia in Hep3B cells

The human HIF3A gene undergoes extensive alternative splicing resulting in seven known isoforms. The short splice variant, HIF-3alpha4, is an inhibitor of the hypoxia response driven by HIF-1 and HIF-2. The role of the long isoforms remains unclear. We used cDNA microarray to study the overall impact of HIF-3a2 overexpression in Hep3B cells under 1 % hypoxia. Hep3B cells were transfected either with the pcDNA3.1/Zeo(-) empty vector or the HIF-3a2 overexpression plasmid with the HIF-beta overexpression plasmid. The cells were first incubated 24 h in normoxia and then 24 h in 1 % hypoxia.