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Rabbit carotid body (CB) chemoreceptor cells possess a fast-inactivating K+ current that is specifically inhibited by hypoxia. We have studied the expression of Kvα subunits, which might be responsible for this current. RT-PCR experiments identified the expression of Kv1.4, Kv3.4, Kv4.1 and Kv4.3 mRNAs in the rabbit CB. There was no expression of Kv3.3 or Kv4.2 transcripts. Immunocytochemistry with antibodies to tyrosine hydroxylase (anti-TH) and to specific Kv subunits revealed the expression of Kv3.4 and Kv4.3 in chemoreceptor cells, while Kv1.4 was only found in nerve fibres. Kv4.1 mRNA was also found in chemoreceptor cells following in situ hybridization combined with anti-TH antibody labelling. Kv4.1 and Kv4.3 appeared to be present in all chemoreceptor cells, but Kv3.4 was only expressed in a population of them. Electrophysiological experiments applying specific toxins or antibodies demonstrated that both Kv3.4 and Kv4.3 participate in the oxygen-sensitive K+ current of chemoreceptor cells. However, toxin application experiments confirmed a larger contribution of members of the Kv4 subfamily. [Ca2+]i measurements under hypoxic conditions and immunocytochemistry experiments in dispersed CB cells demonstrated the expression of Kv3.4 and Kv4.3 in oxygen-sensitive cells; the presence of Kv3.4 in the chemoreceptor cell membrane was not required for the response to low PO2. In summary, three Kv subunits (Kv3.4, Kv4.1 and Kv4.3) may be involved in the fast-inactivating outward K+ current of rabbit CB chemoreceptor cells. The homogeneous distribution of the Kv4 subunits in chemoreceptor cells, along with their electrophysiological properties, suggest that Kv4.1, Kv4.3, or their heteromultimers, are the molecular correlate of the oxygen-sensitive K+ channel.

Carotid body (CB) chemoreceptor cells detect physiological levels of hypoxia and generate a hyperventilation, homeostatic in nature, aimed to minimize the deleterious effects of hypoxia. Intimate mechanisms involved in oxygen sensing in chemoreceptor cells remain largely unknown, but reactive oxygen species (ROS) had been proposed as mediators of this process. We have determined glutathione levels and calculated glutathione redox potential (E GSH; indicator of the general redox environment of cells) in rat diaphragms incubated in the presence of oxidizing agents of two types: nonpermeating and permeating through cell membranes; in the latter group, unspecific oxidants and inhibitors of ROS-disposing enzymes were used. Selected concentrations of oxidizing agents were tested for their ability to modify the normoxic and hypoxic activity of chemoreceptor cells measured in vitro as their rate of release of neurotransmitters. Results evidence variable relationships between EGSH and the activity of chemoreceptor cells. The independence of chemoreceptor cell activity from the EGSH would imply that the ability of the CB to play its homeostatic role is largely preserved in any pathological or toxicological contingency causing oxidative stress. Consistent with this suggestion, it was also found that CB-mediated hypoxic hyperventilation was not altered by treatment of intact animals with agents that markedly decreased the EGSH in all tissues assayed. Copyright © 2009 the American Physiological Society., This work was supported by Dirección General de Investigación Científico y Técnica (DGICYT) Grant BFU2007-61848 and by Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER) Grant CB06/06/0050 (FISS-ICIII) JCyL-GR242.

Producción Científica, This article first presents some basic structural traits of the carotid body (CB) arterial chemoreceptors to understand the relationship between the arterial blood PO2 and the activation of chemoreceptor cells, which are the O2 sensing structures of the CB. Some considerations in relation to the intensity of CB blood flow and O2 consumption of the organ would allow us to define the threshold for the detection of the hypoxic stimulus, which would lead us to the cardinal theme of the article, namely whether at the PO2 levels detected by the CB there alterations in the genesis of re-active oxygen species (ROS). An alteration in the rate of ROS productionwould impinge on the glutathione system [reduced glutathione (GSH) and oxidized glutathione (GSSG)], causing modifications in the GSH/GSSG ratio that are detected by direct measurement; the GSH/GSSG system rep-resents the quantitatively most important mechanism to dispose ROS and to maintain the overall redox status or redox environment in mammalian cells.1 The relationship between GSH/GSSG and oxygen chemoreception is approached from two different points of view. We will measure GSH/GSSG levels and calculate the redox environment of the cells and correl-ation with the activity of chemoreceptor cells in normoxia and in hypoxia. We will also present data on pharmacological manipulation of the redox environment of the cells, as assessed by GSH/GSSG quotients, and pos-sible correlations with the level of activity of chemoreceptor cells. The possible mechanisms of coupling between ROS and the GSH/GSSG system to the cellular effector machineries have been reviewed.2,3

Carotid body (CB) chemoreceptors are the major contributors to the hyperventilatory responses to acute hypoxia. Low PO2 inhibits K channel activity of chemoreceptor cells, inducing a depolarization-mediated neurotransmitter release that elicits the ventilatory response (Gonzalez et al, 1994). Although O2-sensitive K+ currents were described in rabbit CB chemoreceptor cells several years ago (Lopez-Barneo et ai, 1988), the molecular identity of the underlying K channels remains unresolved.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are oxygen-containing molecular entities which are more potent and effective oxidizing agents than is molecular oxygen itself. With the exception of phagocytic cells, where ROS play an important physiological role in defense reactions, ROS have classically been considered undesirable byproducts of cell metabolism, existing several cellular mechanisms aimed to dispose them. Recently, however, ROS have been considered important intracellular signaling molecules, which may act as mediators or second messengers in many cell functions. This is the proposed role for ROS in oxygen sensing in systems, such as carotid body chemoreceptor cells, pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells, and erythropoietin-producing cells. These unique cells comprise essential parts of homeostatic loops directed to maintain oxygen levels in multicellular organisms in situations of hypoxia. The present article examines the possible significance of ROS in these three cell systems, and proposes a set of criteria that ROS should satisfy for their consideration as mediators in hypoxic transduction cascades. In none of the three cell types do ROS satisfy these criteria, and thus it appears that alternative mechanisms are responsible for the transduction cascades linking hypoxia to the release of neurotransmitters in chemoreceptor cells, contraction in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells and erythropoietin secretion in erythropoietin producing cells.

El pdf del artículo es la versión pre-print., 1. The aim of this work was to test the redox hypotheses of O2 chemoreception in the carotid body (CB). They postulate that hypoxia alters the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the ratio of reduced to oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG), causing modifications to the sulfhydryl groups/disulfide bonds of K+ channel proteins, which leads to the activation of chemoreceptor cells. 2. We found that the GSH/GSSG ratio in normoxic calf CB (30.14 ± 4.67; n = 12) and hypoxic organs (33.03 ± 6.88; n = 10), and the absolute levels of total glutathione (0.71 ± 0.07 nmol (mg tissue)-1, normoxia vs. 0.76 ± 0.07 nmol (mg tissue)-1, hypoxia) were not statistically different. 3. N-Acetylcysteine (2 mm; NAC), a precursor of glutathione and ROS scavenger, increased normoxic glutathione levels to 1.03 ± 0.06 nmol (mg tissue)-1 (P < 0.02) and GSH/GSSG ratios to 59.05 ± 5.05 (P < 0.001). 4. NAC (20 μM-10 mM) did not activate or inhibit chemoreceptor cells as it did not alter the normoxic or the hypoxic release of 3H-catecholamines (3H-CAs) from rabbit and calf CBs whose CA deposits had been labelled by prior incubation with the natural CA precursor 3H-tyrosine. 5. NAC (2 mM) was equally ineffective in altering the release of 3H-CAs induced by stimuli (high external K+ and ionomycin) that bypass the initial steps of the hypoxic cascade of activation of chemoreceptor cells, thereby excluding the possibility that the lack of effect of NAC on normoxic and hypoxic release of 3H-CAs results from a concomitant alteration of Ca2+ channels or of the exocytotic machinery. 6. The present findings do not support the contention that O2 chemoreception in the CB is linked to variations in the GSH/GSSG quotient as the redox models propose., This work was supported by Spanish DGICYT grant PB97/0400.