Biologists at UCSD have recently found that mice can sense
low levels of oxygen and regulate the production of a hormone that produces red
blood cells and facilitates adaptation to high-altitude, low-oxygen
environments.
The research study, which appeared in the April 18 issue of
the journal Cell, could significantly affect how physicians treat anemia and
other diseases requiring stimulation in red-blood-cell production. The study
clashes with the notion that mammalian skin has little connection to the
respiratory system. If the discovery can be tied to humans, it could
dramatically influence the training and testing of endurance athletes during
this summer’s Olympic Games in
said Randall Johnson, a biology
professor who led the study.
“We discovered that mammalian skin, at least in mice,
responds to how much oxygen is above it and, by virtue of that response,
changes blood flow through the skin,” Johnson said in a statement. “This, in
turn, changes one of the most basic responses to low oxygen that we have, which
is the production of erythropoietin.”
