The Dual Role of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1α in Sepsis-Induced Immunomodulation and Organ Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Sepsis, a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection, remains a leading cause of global mortality. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) is a master transcriptional regulator of the cellular adaptive response to hypoxia but plays a complex, paradoxical role in sepsis. While essential for innate immune function, its sustained activation may amplify inflammation and drive organ damage. This meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize the evidence on the association of HIF-1α with key markers of immunomodulation and organ dysfunction in sepsis. Methods: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis following PRISMA guidelines. A comprehensive search of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science was conducted for studies published between January 2014 and December 2024. We included observational studies that measured HIF-1α levels in adult sepsis patients and reported outcomes related to organ dysfunction (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment [SOFA] score) or mortality, and immunomodulation (Interleukin-6 [IL-6] levels). Seven studies meeting the inclusion criteria were included in the final analysis. Data were pooled using a random-effects model. Standardized Mean Difference (SMD) and Odds Ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Results: The seven included studies comprised 1,288 patients. The overall quality of the included studies was moderate to high as per the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. The pooled analysis revealed that HIF-1α levels were significantly elevated in sepsis patients who died compared to those who survived (OR = 2.68, 95% CI: 1.55–4.64, p < 0.001), with moderate heterogeneity (I² = 45%). Furthermore, HIF-1α levels were strongly associated with greater organ dysfunction, as measured by the SOFA score (5 studies; SMD = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.51–1.33, p < 0.0001), with substantial heterogeneity (I² = 78%). HIF-1α levels also showed a significant positive correlation with the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 (4 studies; SMD = 1.15, 95% CI: 0.65–1.65, p < 0.00001), with high heterogeneity (I² = 82%). Conclusion: This meta-analysis provides robust evidence that elevated HIF-1α levels are significantly associated with increased sepsis severity, characterized by greater organ dysfunction, a heightened pro-inflammatory state, and a higher risk of mortality. These findings underscore the maladaptive consequences of sustained HIF-1α activation in sepsis, positioning it as a critical prognostic biomarker and a complex, high-value target for future therapeutic modulation.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.008 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.005 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.004 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".