Intermittent Hypoxia Induces Pulmonary Vascular Remodeling and Increases the Expression of STIM‐activated TRPC‐ORAI Channels in the Lung

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a breathing disorder characterized by episodes of chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) and re‐oxygenation during sleep, is an independent risk for systemic hypertension. Furtheremore, 20–60% of OSA patients develop moderate pulmonary hypertension. Rats exposed to CIH developed pulmonary vascular remodeling, but the mechanisms underlaying the vascular remodeling are not well known. Stim‐activated TRP‐CORAI channel (STOC), cationic calcium‐permeable channels, are overexpressed in the lung and plays a key role in the development of pulmonary vascular remodeling in animals exposed to sustained hypoxia. However, whether these channels are involved in the pulmonary vascular remodeling induced by CIH have not been addressed. We studied the time‐course of the vascular pulmonary remodeling and the changes in STOC expression, in a rodent model of OSA. Male Sprague‐Dawley rats (~200g) were exposed for 14 to 28 days to CIH (5% O2, 12 times/h, for 8h). At 14, 21 and 28 days of CIH animals were euthanized and lungs dissected to determine the vascular remodeling index by histology analysis, and the pulmonary mRNA and protein levels of the STOC forming subunits TRPC1, TRPC4, TRPC6, ORAI 1, ORAI 2 and STIM1 by qPCR and western blot, respectively. Results were compared with age‐matched controls. CIH increased the pulmonary expression of TRPC 6, ORAI 1, ORAI 2 and STIM1 at 21 and 28 days compared with controls. In addition, CIH was associated to an increased in pulmonary arteries medial thickness at 21 and 28 days (66.6% ± 2.4, 66.3% ± 4.2 vs 45.4 ± 1.6, 21 and 28 days of CIH vs control respectively, p < 0.05). Present results shown that CIH increased the pulmonary STOC expression, and these changes paralleled the vascular remodeling.Support or Funding InformationFondecyt grants 1150040 and 1180341This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.