PERSPECTIVES IN NUTRITIONAL SCIENCE Oxygen - the forgotten nutrient

Trayhurn, Paul ORCID: 0000-0002-9940-283X (2017) PERSPECTIVES IN NUTRITIONAL SCIENCE Oxygen - the forgotten nutrient. JOURNAL OF NUTRITIONAL SCIENCE, 6. e47-.

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Abstract

O₂ is essential for the maintenance and growth of aerobic animals, similar to the essentiality of what are classically considered nutrients. Nevertheless, O₂ is not customarily regarded as a nutrient, this reflecting the route by which it enters the body - through the lungs or gills in vertebrates, rather than via the mouth and gastrointestinal tract. A relative deficiency of O₂ occurs at high altitudes and during deep-sea diving, to which distinct adaptations occur. Deficiency is also evident in lung diseases such as emphysema. Without O₂, mitochondrial respiration and oxidative phosphorylation cannot take place. At a molecular level, cells adapt to O₂ deficiency by switching from oxidative metabolism to anaerobic glycolysis and there are changes in the expression of a multiplicity of genes, driven by hypoxia-sensitive transcription factors, particularly hypoxia-inducible factor-1. It is argued that O₂ should be fully included within the remit of nutritional science alongside the other essential macronutrients.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Hypoxia, Hypoxia-inducible factor-1, Oxygen deficiency, Oxygen utilisation
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	28 Nov 2017 10:15
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 06:49
DOI:	10.1017/jns.2017.53
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3013064