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(Circulation Research. 2000;86:490.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Are Kv Channels the Essence of O₂ Sensing?

M. Teresa Pérez-García, José Ramón López-López

From the Instituto de Biología y Genética Molecular (IBGM), Universidad de Valladolid y CSIC; Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular y Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Valladolid, Spain.

Correspondence to M. Teresa Pérez-García, Universidad de Valladolid, Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular y Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, c/Ramón y Cajal 7, 47005 Valladolid, Spain. E-mail tperez@ibgm.uva.es

Key Words: Kv channels • hypoxia • O₂ sensor

	Introduction

 
With the exception of anaerobes, organisms depend on oxygen for the production of energy and for biosynthetic reactions. Therefore, cells, tissues, and organisms must be able to sense and respond to changes in the oxygen concentration of their environment. The response of mammalian cells to hypoxia is crucial for their survival, allowing cells to cope with a low-oxygen environment. There are, however, specialized cells located in chemosensory organs (carotid bodies, pulmonary neuroepithelial bodies, and pulmonary artery smooth muscle among others) whose responses to hypoxia are unique, differing both quantitatively and qualitatively from the general self-defense reaction to hypoxia observed in other cell types. The specific hypoxic response of these chemosensitive cells is fast (seconds to minutes), has a lower threshold, requires an increase in their metabolic activity, and leads to changes in their excitability, contractility, and/or secretory activity. All of these features are specializations designed to prevent hypoxia in the entire organism and, thus, to maintain homeostasis.

The physiological role of these specialized responses is well characterized, but the molecular mechanisms of O₂ sensing and their transduction into an adaptive response in chemoreceptor cells is poorly understood. Over the past decade, it has been well established that modulation of ion channel activity by changes in oxygen levels contributes to the chemoreceptor cell response to low PO₂. Since the pioneer description of a low PO₂-modulated K⁺ current in rabbit carotid body chemoreceptor cells¹ many other O₂-sensitive K⁺ channels have been identified in chemosensory preparations.² The high . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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