HIGHLIGHTED TOPIC Oxygen Sensing in Health and Disease Whole-body hypoxic preconditioning protects mice against acute hypoxia by improving lung function

Wang. Whole-body hypoxic preconditioning protects mice against acute hypoxia by improving lung function. J Appl Physiol 96: 392–397, 2004; 10.1152/japplphysiol.00829.2003.—Survival in se-vere hypoxia such as occurs in high altitude requires previous accli-matization, which is acquired over a period of days to weeks. It was unknown whether intrinsic mechanisms existed that could be rapidly induced and could exert immediate protection on unacclimatized individuals against acute hypoxia. We found that mice pretreated with whole-body hypoxic preconditioning (WHPC, 6 cycles of 10-min hypoxia-10-min normoxia) survived significantly longer than control animals when exposed to lethal hypoxia (5 % O2, survival time of 33.2 6.1 min vs. controls at 13.8 1.2 min, n 10, P 0.005). This protective mechanism became operative shortly after WHPC and remained effective for at least 8 h. Accordingly, mice subjected to WHPC demonstrated improved gas exchange when exposed to sub