Conserved responses to oxygen deprivation

Abstract

Genetically tractable model organisms such as the fruit fly offer powerful experimental systems that have illuminated conserved biological phenomena and so guided research in human biology. Still, researchers concerned with the pathologies of stroke and myocardial infarct might consider their fields beyond the reach of even the most fundamental discoveries that could be made in an insect. Recent work, including a paper appearing in this issue of the JCI (1), suggests otherwise. Given the obvious anatomical differences between the nutrient and oxygen delivery systems of mammals and arthropods, the etiologies of stroke and myocardial infarct are unlikely to be mimicked in the fruit fly Drosophila. Still, the pathologies caused by an interruption in blood supply are fundamentally the result of a shortage of oxygen, and the cellular responses to hypoxia in an insect may well be relevant to normal and pathological responses to oxygen deprivation. Interestingly, many organisms tolerate hypoxia without the devastating damage incurred by human heart and brain tissue (2, 3). Turtles, for example, hibernate buried in mud, with little access to oxygen. We understand little of the differences among species regarding tolerance to hypoxia, but identification of the relevant parameters could aid clinical management of acute interruptions in blood flow. However great the relevance of cellular adaptations to hypoxia to stroke or heart attack, Drosophila might not appear an obvious choice of system for studying these pathologies. However, those of us who witnessed how the powerful genetic strategies available in Drosophila pried open the profoundly difficult problem of embryonic patterning have become champions of this organism. Its attributes can be used to probe a wide range of problems. Still, a fly is a long way from a human. Or is it?