GSE67237
Heterogeneous effects of massive hypoxia pathway activation in kidney cancer
General activation of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) pathways is classically associated with adverse prognosis in cancer and has been proposed to contribute to oncogenic drive. In clear cell renal carcinoma (CCRC) HIF pathways are upregulated by inactivation of the von-Hippel-Lindau tumour suppressor. However HIF-1a and HIF-2a have contrasting effects on experimental tumour progression. To better understand this paradox we examined pan-genomic patterns of HIF DNA binding and associated gene expression in response to manipulation of HIF-1a and HIF-2a and related the findings to CCRC prognosis. Our findings reveal distinct pan-genomic organization of HIF isoform-specific DNA binding at thousands of sites. Overall associations were observed between HIF-1a-specific binding, and genes associated with favourable prognosis and between HIF-2a-specific binding and adverse prognosis.  However within each isoform-specific set, individual gene associations were heterogeneous in sign and magnitude, suggesting that activation of each HIF-a isoform contributes a highly complex mix of pro- and anti-tumorigenic effects Overall design: ChIP and RNASeq of HIF-1a and HIF-2a transfection in 786-O cell lines