LAUSR

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a diverse collection of vascular disorders that cause remodelling of small pulmonary arteries, resulting in increases in pulmonary vascular resistance and pulmonary arterial pressure. The World Health Organization classifies these disorders into five groups. Group III includes pulmonary hypertension associated with hypoxic lung disorders such as COPD. While not everyone with COPD develops pulmonary hypertension, those who do are more likely to experience acute exacerbations, hospitalisations, and poorer outcomes. Because alveolar hypoxia is a key element driving this response, investigators have studied how chronic hypoxia contributes to the development of PH. HIF1 and HIF2 can play complementary, opposing or unrelated roles in mediating the response to low oxygen levels in different cell types. This study shows HIF2 plays a dominant role in mediating the development of PH in response to environmental hypoxia. http://bit.ly/2Cy46sR