[The relationship between adhesion molecules and hypoxia]

Hypoxia is an essential developmental and physiological stimulus that plays a key role in the pathophysiology of heart attack, cancer and other major causes of mortality. Recently studies have shown that hypoxia itself may directly activate NFk-B. NFk-B sites are also present in the promoter of the ICAM-1 gene. Therefore, it is possible that hypoxia could directly activate the ICAM-1, through activation of NFk-B. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 is the only known mammalian transcription factor expressed uniquely in response to physiologically relevant levels of hypoxia. In the another cause of the induction of adhesion molecules with hypoxia adhesion molecules are induced by the inflammatory cytokine(IL-1, TNF alpha) that caused with anoxia/reperfusion. The adhesion molecules induced by hypoxia play one of the key rolls of the various diseases. For example the level of cICAM-1 in OSAS patients were increased. These observations suggest that OSAS-induced hypoxia activate adhesion molecules, resulting in the important risk factor of cardiovascular disorders.