The crucian carp (Carassius carassius L.) exhibits the unique ability among vertebrates to maintain cardiac performance at normoxic levels during prolonged anoxia exposure. This thesis investigates the hypothesis that this phenomenon is possible because the heart likely never experiences an extracellular pH below 7.4 due to the fish’s exclusive trait of converting lactate and H ions to ethanol....

Crucian carp (Carassius carassius L.), which are extremely anoxia-tolerant, were exposed to 17 days of anoxia at 8 degrees C. One group of fish was transferred to normoxic water for 1-8 h immediately after the anoxic period. All the eight amino acids measured in brain (including four putative neurotransmitters) were more or less strongly affected by anoxia. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) displa...

Many species of marine mollusks demonstrate exceptional capacities for long term survival without oxygen. Analysis of gene expression under anoxic conditions, including the subsequent translational responses, allows examination of the functional mechanisms that support and regulate natural anaerobiosis and permit noninjurious transitions between aerobic and anoxic states. Identification of stre...

Exogenous sucrose (Suc) greatly enhances anoxia tolerance of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seedlings. We used the Affymetrix ATH1 GeneChip containing more than 22,500 probe sets to explore the anaerobic transcriptome of Arabidopsis seedlings kept under anoxia for 6 h in presence or absence of exogenous Suc. Functional clustering was performed using the MapMan software. Besides the expected...

24 Mammalian neurons rapidly undergo excitotoxic cell death during anoxia, while neurons 25 from the anoxia-tolerant painted turtle survive without oxygen for hours and offer a unique 26 model to study mechanisms to reduce the severity of cerebral stroke. An anoxia-mediated 27 decrease in whole-cell NMDA and AMPA receptor currents are an important part of the turtle’s 28 natural defence. Here w...

Mammalian neurons rapidly undergo excitotoxic cell death during anoxia, whereas neurons from the anoxia-tolerant painted turtle survive without oxygen for hours and offer a unique model to study mechanisms to reduce the severity of cerebral stroke. An anoxia-mediated decrease in whole cell N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) cu...

Studies with mammals and birds clearly demonstrate that brief preexposure to oxygen deprivation can protect the myocardium from damage normally associated with a subsequent prolonged hypoxic/ischemic episode. However, is not known whether this potent mechanism of myocardial protection, termed preconditioning, exists in other vertebrates including fishes. In this study, we used an in situ trout ...

BACKGROUND Reoxygenation of ischemic tissues is a major factor that determines the severity of cardiovascular diseases. This paper describes the consequences of anoxia/reoxygenation (A/R) stresses on Drosophila, a useful, anoxia tolerant, model organism. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Newly emerged adult male flies were exposed to anoxic conditions (<1% O2) for 1 to 6 hours, reoxygenated and ...

Pék-Scott, Marta, and Peter L. Lutz. ATP-sensitive K1 channel activation provides transient protection to the anoxic turtle brain. Am. J. Physiol. 275 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 44): R2023–R2027, 1998.—There is wide speculation that ATP-sensitive K1 (KATP) channels serve a protective function in the mammalian brain, being activated during periods of energy failure. The aim of the pr...

Sustained periods of anoxia, driven by eutrophication, threaten coastal marine systems and can lead to mass mortalities even resilient animals such as bivalves. While mortality rates under anoxia are well-studied, the specific mechanism(s) less clear. We used a suite complementary techniques (LT50, histology, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, valvometry) show that proliferation anaerobic bacteria w...