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Some Reflections on Intermittent Hypoxia. Does it Constitute the Translational Niche for Carotid Body Chemoreceptor Researchers?

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Book cover Arterial Chemoreception

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 758))

Abstract

The views presented in this article are the fruit of reflections and discussion with my colleagues at Valladolid and with the members of the Sleep Apnea Hypopnea Syndrome Group of the CIBERES (Spain). We have assembled the article in three sections. In the first one we provide a mechanistic description of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and all of its components, including the repetitive episodes of upper airways (UA) obstruction and accompanying hypoxic hypoxia, the respiratory efforts to fight and overcome the obstruction, and the sleep fragmentation due to the hypoxia-triggered arousal reactions, all events occurring during sleep hours with frequencies that might reach up >40–50 episodes/sleep hour. When OSA is accompanied by some of the elements of a big cohort of associated pathologies (vascular, metabolic, and neuropsychiatric) it conforms the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). The high frequency of OSAS in adults (>35 years old) and the costs in every regard of the treatment makes the syndrome a primary importance socio-sanitary problem. In the second section, we describe the experimental models of OSAS, basically the episodic repetitive hypoxic model described by Fletcher and coworkers in 1992, today named in short intermittent hypoxia (IH). From these lines, we want to call for some kind of consensus among researchers to lessen the dispersion of IH protocols. Finally, in the last section we intend to share our optimism with all ISAC members. The optimism is based on the recognition that carotid body (CB) chemoreceptors are critical elements of one of the main pathophysiologic loops in the genesis of OSAS. Therefore, we believe that all of us, as ISAC members, are well qualified to contribute in multidisciplinary research teams with well defined translational interests.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by the MICINN grant (BFU2007-61848) and Accion Integrada PT2009-0172 and ICiii-CIBERES CB06/06/0050.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias, Valladolid, Spain

    Constancio Gonzalez, Sara Yubero, M. Angela Gomez-Niño, Teresa Agapito, Asuncion Rocher, Ricardo Rigual, Ana Obeso & Jose M. Montserrat

  2. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Physiology, and IBGM, Universidad de Valladolid and CSIC, Valladolid, Spain

    Constancio Gonzalez, Sara Yubero, M. Angela Gomez-Niño, Teresa Agapito, Asuncion Rocher, Ricardo Rigual & Ana Obeso

  3. Laboratori de la Son, Pneumologia Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS, Barcelona, Spain

    Jose M. Montserrat

Authors
  1. Constancio Gonzalez
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  2. Sara Yubero
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  3. M. Angela Gomez-Niño
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  4. Teresa Agapito
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  5. Asuncion Rocher
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  6. Ricardo Rigual
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  7. Ana Obeso
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  8. Jose M. Montserrat
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Constancio Gonzalez .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Biology, McMaster University, Main St. W. 1280, Hamilton, L8S 4K1, Ontario, Canada

    Colin A. Nurse

  2. Facultad de Medicina, Depto. Bioquímica y Biología, Universidad de Valladolid, C\ Ramón y Cajal 7, Valladolid, 47005, Spain

    Constancio Gonzalez

  3. Fac. Medicine & Health, Division of Cardiovascular &, University of Leeds, Clarendon Way, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom

    Chris Peers

  4. , Biological Sciences Div &, University of Chicago, South Maryland Avenue 5841, Chicago, 60637, Illinois, USA

    Nanduri Prabhakar

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Gonzalez, C. et al. (2012). Some Reflections on Intermittent Hypoxia. Does it Constitute the Translational Niche for Carotid Body Chemoreceptor Researchers?. In: Nurse, C., Gonzalez, C., Peers, C., Prabhakar, N. (eds) Arterial Chemoreception. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 758. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4584-1_45

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