Mandarin voles (Lasiopodomys mandarinus) spend almost all their lives underground and must have evolved remarkable physiological adaptations to subterranean hypoxic stress. To understand the response to hypoxia in blood system of this rodent in a region with lower altitude, we tested and compared the responding characteristics between Mandarin vole and Kunming mouse (Mus musculus) under chronic normobaric hypoxic treatment (10.0% O(2), 4 w). The results showed that: 1) as for responses to chronic hypoxia, HIF-1 alpha, EPO and VEGF exhibited similar patterns in two species. The expression of HIF-1 alpha and VEGF significantly increased while EPO decreased significantly, and HIF-1 alpha showed a greater increase at 10.0% oxygen level in Mandarin voles; 2) both rodents responded to chronic hypoxia mainly by increasing MCH, though KM mouse responded more acutely; 3) the change in MCHC in Mandarin vole was ignorable though it is significantly higher than that in KM mouse whose MCHC changed extensively and 4) both before and after hypoxic treatment, the capillary density in Mandarin vole was significantly higher than that in KM mouse, and it increased sharply in KM mouse after treatment. Our results indicated that, compared to KM mice, Mandarin voles did respond effectively to hypoxia stress after long-term adaptation to subterranean life environment.
Copyright (c) 2010. Published by Elsevier Inc.