Hypoxia-inducible Factor-1α Induces ErbB4 Signaling in the Differentiating Mammary Gland

Conditional knock-out of Hif1a in the mouse mammary gland impairs lobuloalveolar differentiation during lactation. Here, we demonstrate that expression of ErbB4 was reduced in the lobulalveoli of mice with mammary gland-specific deletion of Hif1a. Erbb4 was not, however, a direct target gene for transcriptional regulation by HIF-1 alpha in vitro. HIF-1 alpha overexpression or HIF accumulating prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors reduced ErbB4 endocytosis, promoted transcriptional co-regulatory activity of ErbB4, and stimulated ErbB4-induced differentiation of mammary carcinoma cells. Consistently, RNA interference-mediated down-regulation of HIF-1 alpha resulted in reduced ErbB4 protein amount and reduced mammary carcinoma cell differentiation. These findings indicate that HIF-1 alpha is a physiologically relevant regulator of ErbB4 and that ErbB4 is involved in HIF-regulated differentiation of the mammary gland.