In 2019, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to William G.Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L.Semenza for their discoveries in mechanism of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen level. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) plays a key role in this mechanism. It can act as a transcription factor to alter gene expression and adapt to hypoxia by increasing oxygen carrying capacity, increasing blood supply, and changing metabolic patterns. The function of HIF-1 is also regulated by various mechanisms: ubiquitination-proteasome pathway degradation and inhibition of transcription factor activity under the action of tumor suppressor proteins pVHL, proline hydroxylase (PHD), factor inhibiting HIF (FIH), etc. This paper summarizes the research results of three Nobel Prize winners, and introduces the latest progress, systematically expounds the regulation mechanism of HIF-1 and HIF-1 mediated cell adaptation to hypoxia.