Oxygen-regulated Transferrin Expression Is Mediated by Hypoxia-inducible Factor-1*

Transferrin (Tf) is a liver-derived iron transport protein whose plasma concentration increases following exposure to hypoxia. Here, we present a cell culture model capable of expressing Tf mRNA in an oxygen-dependent manner. A 4-kilobase pair Tf promoter/enhancer fragment as well as the 300-base pair liver-specific Tf enhancer alone conveyed hypoxia responsiveness to a heterologous reporter gene construct in hepatoma but not HeLa cells. Within this enhancer, a 32-base pair hypoxia-responsive element was identified, which contained two hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) binding sites (HBSs). Mutation analysis showed that both HBSs function as oxygen-regulated enhancers in Tf-expressing as well as in non-Tf-expressing cell lines. Mutation of both HBSs was necessary to completely abolish hypoxic reporter gene activation. Transient co-expression of the two HIF-1 subunits HIF-1α and aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (ARNT)/HIF-1β resulted in enhanced reporter gene expression even under normoxic conditions. Overexpression of a dominant-negative ARNT/HIF-1β mutant reduced hypoxic activation. DNA binding studies using nuclear extracts from the mouse hepatoma cell line Hepa1 and the ARNT/HIF-1β-deficient subline Hepa1C4, as well as antibodies raised against HIF-1α and ARNT/HIF-1β confirmed that HIF-1 binds the Tf HBSs. Mutation analysis and competition experiments suggested that the 5′ HBS was more efficient in binding HIF-1 than the 3′ HBS. Finally, hypoxic induction of endogenous Tf mRNA was abrogated in Hepa1C4 cells, confirming that HIF-1 confers oxygen regulation of Tf gene expression by binding to the two HBSs present in the Tf enhancer.