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Editorial
. 2021 Oct 25;57(11):1161.
doi: 10.3390/medicina57111161.

Oxygen: A Stimulus, Not "Only" a Drug

Costantino Balestra  1 , Jacek Kot  2
Affiliations
Editorial

Oxygen: A Stimulus, Not "Only" a Drug

Costantino Balestra et al. Medicina (Kaunas). .

Abstract

Depending on the oxygen partial pressure in a tissue, the therapeutic effect of oxygenation can vary from simple substance substitution up to hyperbaric oxygenation when breathing hyperbaric oxygen at 2.5-3.0 ATA. Surprisingly, new data showed that it is not only the oxygen supply that matters as even a minimal increase in the partial pressure of oxygen is efficient in triggering cellular reactions by eliciting the production of hypoxia-inducible factors and heat-shock proteins. Moreover, it was shown that extreme environments could also interact with the genome; in fact, epigenetics appears to play a major role in extreme environments and exercise, especially when changes in oxygen partial pressure are involved. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is, essentially, "intermittent oxygen" exposure. We must investigate hyperbaric oxygen with a new paradigm of treating oxygen as a potent stimulus of the molecular network of reactions.

Keywords: epigenetics; hyperbaric oxygen; hyperoxic-hypoxic paradox; normobaric oxygen paradox; oxygen.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Oxygen levels and their therapeutic use (PO2, partial pressure of oxygen).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Oxygen cascade from ambient air down to mitochondria (figure taken from [17]).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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