Anest. intenziv. Med. 2020;31(4):195-197 | DOI: 10.36290/aim.2020.041

Hypoxia and hypercapnia - how do the chemoreceptors work?Clinical physiology

Astapenko D.^{1, 2}, Černý V.^1–6

¹ Klinika anesteziologie, resuscitace a intenzivní medicíny, Fakultní nemocnice Hradec Králové

² Lékařská fakulta v Hradci Králové, Univerzita Karlova

³ Centrum pro výzkum a vývoj, Fakultní nemocnice Hradec Králové

⁴ Klinika anesteziologie, perioperační a intenzivní medicíny, Univerzita J. E. Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem, Masarykova nemocnice v Ústí nad Labem

⁵ Department of Anesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

⁶ Technická univerzita Liberec

Proper oxygen and carbon dioxide tension is one of the basic prerequisites for maintaining homeostasis. In the context of the macroorganism, mechanisms have been developed that allow both acute and long-term responses to respiratory gas imbalances. Acute reactions are mediated by chemoreceptors (glomus caroticum, large vessel receptor zones, and chemoreceptor centers in the brain) and primarily affect the respiratory pattern. Chemoreceptors work by transducing a chemical signal into an electrical one. Its genesis proceeds in several pathways, which lead to the closure of the potassium channel, the opening of the calcium channel and subsequently to the depolarization of the membrane. Long-term stimulation by hypoxia or hypercapnia leads to a response at the cellular level by altering transcription and gene expression. So far, the most studied is the so-called HIF pathway (hypoxia induced factor), the modulation of which in the experiment led to the mitigation of the effects of ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Keywords: hypoxia, hypercapnia, chemoreceptors, hypoxia induced factor.

Published: September 18, 2020  Show citation