Increased blood vessel density provides the mole rat physiological tolerance to its hypoxic subterranean habitat

SPECIFIC AIMSThe blind subterranean mole rat superspecies Spalax ehrenbergi has evolved adaptations that allow it to survive and carry out intensive activities in its highly hypoxic underground sealed burrows. A key component of this adaptation is a higher capillary density in some Spalax tissues, primarily muscles involved in digging and energetic activities, resulting in a shorter diffusion distance for oxygen. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent angiogenic factor that is critical in the ability to grow new blood vessels for physiological processes, such as embryogenesis, and in pathological processes such as tumor growth and metastasis. One of the key factors controlling VEGF expression is oxygen tension. The lack of oxygen (hypoxia) induces VEGF expression at the levels of mRNA transcription and stabilization.In this study we sought to explain the enigma of why Spalax muscle does not increase VEGF with hypoxia as reported by our group previously. Using real-time quantitative PCR, mRN...