OBJECTIVES

• The group aims to define at the molecular level the mechanisms involved in hypoxic detection and transduction in various cell lines involved in O2 homeostasis and that are responsible for minimizing the intensity and deleterious damage of hypoxia. Given that a multitude of pathologies found in the clinic are hypoxic, the group uses experimental models that may a priori be useful for understanding clinical situations of socio-sanitary and economic relevance, such as oxygen therapy and surveillance-treatment of hypoglycemia in the newborn .

Another objective of the group is focused on the study of the molecular mechanisms involved in the control of muscle tone, especially those dependent on the activity of ion channels. Knowledge of the physiology of these proteins in normal vessels is of great importance to understand the pathophysiology of processes of great medical relevance, such as hypertension or atherosclerosis.

RESEARCH LINES

• Role of the adrenal medulla in the response to neonatal hypoxia and hypoglycemia

• Oxygen detection mechanisms in the arterial chimeoreceptors of the carotid body

• Role of ion channels in the control of arterial muscle tone