Hypoxia-response coupling in oxygen-sensing cells: Will the true mechanism please stand up

Cardiac & Respiratory PhysiologyCardiac & Respiratory Physiology (CR)

Organised by A Mark Evans (University of Edinburgh, UK) and Constancio Gonzalez (Universidad de Valladolid, Spain)

Hypoxaemia is a major contributor to pathologies such as sleep apnea, hypertension and neurodegenerative disorders. In the 1890s, Sherrington demonstrated that hypoxaemia enhanced cerebral blood flow to match local metabolism, while Bradford and Dean noted a rise in pulmonary arterial pressure upon asphyxia. Thirty years later, De Castro and Heymans, respectively, identified the carotid bodies as sensory organs that mediate hyperventilation by a fall in arterial pO2. Then von Euler and Liljestrand showed hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction assists ventilation-perfusion matching in the lung. However, the precise mechanisms that regulate whole body energy homeostasis remain elusive. This symposium addresses our current understanding.

Hypoxic pulmonary hypertension: a clinical perspective
J Simon S Gibbs (Imperial College London, UK)
Oxygen stress and control of breathing during development
Estelle Gauda (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA)
Hypoxia and beyond - NADPH oxidases in the pulmonary circulation
Norbert Weissmann (University of Giessen, Germany)
Carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide in hypoxia-response coupling
Nanduri Prabhakar (University of Chicago, USA)
Ion channel regulation by the AMP-activated protein kinase: a key to metabolic homeostasis at the whole body level
A Mark Evans (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Regulation of carotid body functions by ion channels and neurotransmitters
Constancio Gonzalez (Universidad de Valladolid, Spain)