Hypoxia Intracellular Ion Balance

There are many health and environmental conditions that can result in hypoxia. Therefore, it is important for healthcare providers to understand the effects of hypoxia on the body to know how to treat properly and diagnose conditions. Fortunately, there are research findings available that indicate the effects of hypoxia on a cellular level including the effects of hypoxia on the intracellular ion balance (McCance & Huether, 2013). This document provides an explanation of how hypoxia can change the intracellular ion balance.
Understanding the Basics
Hypoxia is described as having an inadequate amount of available oxygen (McCance & Huether, 2013). Cellular responses are often a like a chain-linked reaction. For example, hypoxia has been indicated to result in an insufficient adenosine production as a result of decreased mitochondrial phosphorylation. A result of a decrease in adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is anaerobic metabolism, which contributes to a change in the intracellular ion balance of sodium, calcium, and potassium ions (McCance & Huether, 2013).
Hypoxia Induced Sodium and Potassium Shifts
As a result of the pump failing, sodium ions begin to accumulate in the intracellular space, resulting in an intracellular ion balance change and cellular swelling (McCance & Huether, 2013). The study by Tang et al. (2012) also describes the identified mechanisms that result in increased intracellular sodium during hypoxia. The findings from the study indicate as a result of hypoxia, the decreased production of ATP does lead to sodium ions entering the cell (Tang et al. 2012). The other mechanism explained includes: during the repolarization period, sodium enters into the cell through “TTX –sensitive voltage-gated sodium channels” (Tang et al. 2012, p. 514) resulting in increased sodium within the