Role Of ATP-sensitive Potassium Channels In Protecting Hippocampal CA1 Neurons From Hypoxia And Its Mechanism

Background: For the most tissues and organisms, oxygen is necessary factor to maintain vital activities. Biologists and medical scientists pay close attention to study responses, tolerance and recovery to changes in oxygen concentration. There are two kinds of celluar responses to the hypoxia or anoxia. Acute response mainly depends on oxygen-sensitive ion channels, however, chronic response depends on hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) which could regulate erythropoietin, VEGF, glucose transporter, and glycolytic enzyme genes expression. A chronic lack of oxygen has been implicated in a variety of diseases, including atherosclerosis, diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis, neurodegenerative disorders, arthritis and aging. At the cellular level, hypoxia can activate numerous major signaling pathways, resulting in changes in gene expression, which influences the cellular ability to survive or die. These signaling pathways exert their influences mainly through modulation of transcription factor activity that affects changes in gene expression of specific target genes. Some of these pathways are linked to enhanced cell survival, whereas others are associated with cell death. Brain is the most vulnerable organism; functional change of brain can influence all other tissues of body.ATP-sensitive potassium (K_Atp) channels serve a variety of cellular functions and are widely distributed in the central and peripheral nervous system, pituitary, cardiac muscle, smooth muscle, skeletal muscle, pancreatic β-cells, to name a few. And it participates in neural regeneration, cell death and cell cycle regulation. It has...