REVIEW ARTICLE


Hypoxic Pulmonary Vasoconstriction in Humans: Tale or Myth



A. Hussain1, *, M.S. Suleiman2, S.J. George2, M. Loubani1, A. Morice3
1 Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Castle Hill Hospital, Castle Road, Cottingham, HU16 5JQ, UK
2 School of Clinical Sciences, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Marlborough Street, Bristol, BS2 8HW, UK
3 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Castle Hill Hospital, Castle Road, Cottingham, HU16 5JQ, UK


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Creative Commons License
© Hussain et al.; Licensee Bentham Open

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Castle Hill Hospital, Castle Road, Cottingham, HU16 5JQ, UK; Tel: 0044-774-8019242; E-mail: Azar.Hussain@hey.nhs.uk


Abstract

Hypoxic Pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) describes the physiological adaptive process of lungs to preserves systemic oxygenation. It has clinical implications in the development of pulmonary hypertension which impacts on outcomes of patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery. This review examines both acute and chronic hypoxic vasoconstriction focusing on the distinct clinical implications and highlights the role of calcium and mitochondria in acute versus the role of reactive oxygen species and Rho GTPases in chronic HPV. Furthermore it identifies gaps of knowledge and need for further research in humans to clearly define this phenomenon and the underlying mechanism.

Keywords: Hypoxic Pulmonary Vasoconstriction, Human, Acute hypoxia, Chronic hypoxia, Pulmonary hypertension.