Abstract
In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of acute and chronic exposure to HA on the aerobic and anaerobic metabolism in liver by determining the hepatic levels of ICDH and ATP. Lactate levels in liver and blood were also examined. Rats were exposed to an altitude of 4,300 m for 30 days, and those without HA exposure were used as controls. We observed an increased expression of liver ICDH following acute exposure (days 1, 3, and 7), whereas the liver ATP concentration was reduced on day 1. No changes in the hepatic expression of ICDH and ATP were found in rats chronically exposed to HA. Lactate concentrations of liver and blood did not show any significant changes following HA exposure. Thus, aerobic metabolism may be the major metabolic pathway in response to HA hypoxia in order to acclimatize themselves to the stressful environments.
Highlights
Hypoxia-induced biochemical and metabolic changes are essential to the acclimation to the environment of lower oxygen such as high altitude (HA)
We chose to examine several indicators to find out whether aerobic or anaerobic metabolism is the preferred metabolic pathway in rats exposed to HA condition
In rats exposed to acute HA condition, there was a significant increase in the expression of Isocitrate dehydrogenase CPT-I (ICDH) at the mRNA and protein levels (1, 3, and 7 days), and the levels were similar to those of the control rats in the chronic HA exposure groups
Summary
Hypoxia-induced biochemical and metabolic changes are essential to the acclimation to the environment of lower oxygen such as high altitude (HA). The impact of acute and chronic exposure to HA on the aerobic and anaerobic metabolism has attracted a wide attention. Previous studies have reported that acute exposure to HA results in an anaerobic stimulation of glycolysis [1,2,3,4,5,6], and chronic HA acclimatization is characterized by an improved ability of efficient utilization of oxygen [1, 4, 6, 7]. The impact of acute and chronic HA acclimatization on the aerobic and anaerobic metabolism is still controversial. We found that FA oxidation in rats exposed to HA was increased during acute exposure and returned to the control group level during chronic exposure [9]. We aimed to evaluate the effect of acute and chronic HA exposure on Krebs cycle in rats
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