Lipid remodeling by hypoxia aggravates migratory potential in pancreatic cancer while maintaining membrane homeostasis

Membranes are crucial cell components underlying optimal cellular functioning under diverse conditions including cancer. The membrane physiology requires acute maintenance of biophysical properties and a regulation of cellular lipidome. Homeostatic adaptation of membranes to temperature, pressure and anti-cancer drugs is a well-recognized. However, how the same is regulated under the influence of oxygen deprivation in pancreatic cancers-highly hypoxic cancer- is not known. Here, we report robust lipidomic remodelling in response to HIF-1α induction in pancreatic cancer cells and significant accumulation of lipid droplets. The lipidome rewiring span changes across various lipid classes, levels of unsaturation and acyl chain lengths. Interestingly, despite extensive lipidome alteration, cellular membrane homeostatic response ensures no major modulation of membrane biophysical properties underlying enhanced migratory potential. The correlation of lipidome changes, with pathway analysis and proteomics provide the basis for mutually exclusive regulation of lipidome and membrane properties. These findings help to understand the hypoxic regulation of pancreatic membrane homeostasis.