Ontogeny of Carbon Monoxide-Related Gene Expression in a Deep-Diving Marine Mammal.

ABSTRACT: Marine mammals such as northern elephant seals (NES) routinely experience hypoxemia and ischemia-reperfusion events to many tissues during deep dives with no apparent adverse effects. Adaptations to diving include increased antioxidants and elevated oxygen storage capacity associated with high hemoprotein content in blood and muscle. The natural turnover of heme by heme oxygenase enzymes (encoded by HMOX1 and HMOX2) produces endogenous carbon monoxide (CO), which is present at high levels in NES blood and has been shown to have cytoprotective effects in laboratory systems exposed to hypoxia. To understand how pathways associated with endogenous CO production and signaling change across ontogeny in diving mammals, we measured muscle CO and baseline expression of 17 CO-related

SUBMITTER: Piotrowski ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8567018 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature