At present, histone methylation has been gradually recognized as an important regulatory factor driving malignant transformation of hypoxic tumors [
94]. For example, G9a and G9a-like protein (GLP), as histone lysine methylases, regulate HIF-1α transcriptional activity and drive hypoxic-induced genes regression (Fig.
1b) [
94,
95]. G9a, encoded by euchromatic histone lysine methyltransferase 2 (Ehmt2) mRNA, is an epigenetic regulator that methylates histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9) and leads to condensed chromatin [
96]. Since G9 is genetically down-regulated in a variety of tumors and can inhibit the expression of tumor suppressor genes, it plays an important role in carcinogenesis [
2,
95]. The stability of G9a protein is increased due to the reduction of prolyl hydroxylation, which reducing the interaction between G9a and pVHL and subsequent proteasomal degradation [
95]. A subset of genes which are necessary for hypoxic tumor suppression, are repressed due to increased H3K9 methylation by G9a [
95]. And an G9a inhibitor, BIX01294, decreases the levels of PHD2, pVHL and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), leading to increased stability of HIF-1α protein and reduced angiogenic activity [
97]. However, the direct regulatory effects of G9a on HIF-1α and even HIF-2α remain unclear. GLP generally plays a synergistic epigenetic modification function with G9a in tumors [
94,
98]. For example, H3K9 methylation mediated by G9a and GPL enzymes depends on the functional activity of FIH. Under normoxic conditions, G9a and GLP were hydroxylated by FIH at the Asn779 and Asn867, respectively. After hydroxylation, G9a and GLP lost the function of methylating H3K9 [
99]. Under hypoxic conditions, G9a and GLP proteins were not hydroxylated, thus maintaining stability, resulting in H3K9 methylation with inhibitory effect on genes, and finally realizing the epigenetic regulation of FIH-G9a/GLP signaling axis on the invasion and metastasis of ovarian cancer [
99]. FIH also has similar regulatory effects on HIF-1α and HIF-2α in physiological and pathological conditions [
56]. Whether this indicates that G9a/GLP has direct effects on HIF-α activities via epigenetic regulation are still unknown. What we know is that G9a/GLP bind directly to HIF-1α protein in hypoxic tumors, both in vitro and in vivo, and catalyze monomethylation and dimethylation of HIF-1α at lysine 674, thereby inhibiting the transcriptional activity of HIF-1α and the expression of its downstream target genes [
72]. For histone demethylases, the Jumonji domain (JMJD) containing protein and lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) involved in regulation of HIF stability [
100]. The proteins of the Jumonji C (JmjC) containing family are mainly composed of 2-oxoglutarate (2OG)- and Fe
2+-dependent histone demethylase, of which JMJD6 is an important member [
101]. In recent years, JMJD6 has been thought to be related to the occurrence and development of a variety of tumors, including breast cancer, melanoma, oral cancer, glioblastoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, colon cancer, ovarian cancer and neuroglioma [
101‐
110]. For instance, in ovarian cancer, Zheng et al. found that JMJD6 was highly expressed in tumor cells by tissue microarray immunohistochemical staining, and the high expression was associated with poor prognosis of patients [
108]. According to the crystal structure characteristics of JmjC, they designed a JMJD6 inhibitor SKLB325, and tested the efficacy of the drug in vitro and in vivo, the results showed that the efficacy was good [
108]. LSD1 is an flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-dependent histone lysine demethylase, which can remove monomethyl or dimethyl from lysine 3 and lysine 9 of the histone 3 [
100]. Abnormal LSD1 expression can be seen in a variety of cancers, such as blood, neuronal, thyroid, prostate, lung, colorectal, pancreatic, and breast cancers, suggesting that LSD1 can be developed as a molecular target for cancer [
111,
112]. Instead of directly promoting the transcriptional activity of HIF, LSD1 has been reported to regulate the ubiquitin-degradation pathway of its protein, thereby affecting its activity [
112]. In papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) tissues, high expression of LSD1 stabilizes HIF-1α to avoid its proteasomal degradation, and database prediction shows that HIF-1α is enriched near the miR-146a promoter region [
112]. In vitro experiments, HIF-1α increased the expression level of miR-146a, and upregulated miR-146a inhibited the expression of target gene GABPA, finally leading to further malignant transformation of PTC [
112]. The nude mouse model also further verified that LSD1 could up-regulate the expression of miR-146a [
112]. LSD1 also has the function of non-histone lysine methylation [
113], which is not discussed here. In addition, many recent studies have shown that LSD1 can be an important molecular target for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia [
114,
115], but therapies directly associated with HIFs activity need to be further explored.