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Review
. 2021 Oct 21;4(4):319-328.
doi: 10.1002/ame2.12183. eCollection 2021 Dec.

The hypoxia adaptation of small mammals to plateau and underground burrow conditions

Mengke Li  1 , Dan Pan  1 , Hong Sun  1   2 , Lei Zhang  1 , Han Cheng  1 , Tian Shao  1 , Zhenlong Wang  1
Affiliations
Review

The hypoxia adaptation of small mammals to plateau and underground burrow conditions

Mengke Li et al. Animal Model Exp Med. .

Abstract

Oxygen is one of the important substances for the survival of most life systems on the earth, and plateau and underground burrow systems are two typical hypoxic environments. Small mammals living in hypoxic environments have evolved different adaptation strategies, which include increased oxygen delivery, metabolic regulation of physiological responses and other physiological responses that change tissue oxygen utilization. Multi-omics predictions have also shown that these animals have evolved different adaptations to extreme environments. In particular, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and erythropoietin (EPO), which have specific functions in the control of O2 delivery, have evolved adaptively in small mammals in hypoxic environments. Naked mole-rats and blind mole-rats are typical hypoxic model animals as they have some resistance to cancer. This review primarily summarizes the main living environment of hypoxia tolerant small mammals, as well as the changes of phenotype, physiochemical characteristics and gene expression mode of their long-term living in hypoxia environment.

Keywords: hypoxia adaptation; multi‐omics; plateau; small mammals; underground burrow systems.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The effect of ROS content in the organism
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