Acute oxygen sensing in cellular models: relevance to the physiology of pulmonary neuroepithelial and carotid bodies.

The combination of studies in native tissues and immortalised model systems during the last decade has made possible a deeper understanding of the physiology and functional morphology of arterial and airway oxygen sensors. Complementary and overlapping information from these earlier studies has allowed a detailed description of the cellular events that link decreased environmental oxygen to the release of physiologically important vasoactive transmitters. Since these basic pathways have now been defined functionally, what remains to be determined is the molecular identity of the specific proteins involved in the signal transduction pathways, and how these proteins interact to produce a full physiological response. With these goals clearly in sight, we have embarked upon a strategy that is a novel combination of proteomics and functional genomics. It is hoped this strategy will enable us to develop and refine the initial models in order to understand more completely the process of oxygen sensing in health and disease.