Phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI; EC 5.3.1.9) is a housekeeping cytosolic
enzyme of the
sugar metabolism pathways that plays a key role in glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. PGI is a multifunctional dimeric
protein that extracellularly acts as a
cytokine with properties that include
autocrine motility factor (AMF) eliciting mitogenic, motogenic, differentiation functions and has been implicated in
tumor progression and
metastasis. Since
metastasis is regulated in part by
hypoxia, which induces the transcription of
metastasis-associated genes and anaerobic glycolic metabolism, we questioned whether
hypoxia also regulates the expression level of
tumor cells' PGI/AMF. We establish here that in the human
breast carcinoma BT-549 cells
hypoxia enhanced expression of the
transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1, which in turn led to the up-regulation of PGI/AMF expression and was specifically inhibited by inhibitors of the
phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase signaling pathway. In addition, the
hypoxia induction of PGI/AMF expression was suppressed by inhibitors of
vascular endothelial growth factor (
VEGF) or
VEGF receptors, suggesting that
hypoxia-inducible
VEGF regulates the PGI/AMF expression.
Hypoxia also enhanced
cancer cell motility, and these effects were strongly inhibited by the PGI/AMF,
VEGF, or
VEGF receptor inhibitors. The results presented here suggest that under hypoxic conditions the expression of PGI/AMF is regulated in part by the HIF pathway, which in turn increases the flow of the glycolytic cascade leading to an increased anaerobic energy generation; thus, inhibition of PGI/AMF expression and activities may provide a new therapeutic modality for treatment of hypoxic
tumors.