PANNEXIN 1 INCREASES MOUSE CEREBRAL BLOOD FLOW RESPONSE TO HYPERCAPNIA BUT NOT TO SKIN RECEPTOR STIMULATION

Pannexin-1 (Panx1) is involved in purinergic control of many physiological and pathological processes. The purpose of the work is to study the Panx1 role in induced local and global changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) in mice. Two groups of mature male mice С57Bl/6J (control) and with the global Panx1 knockout were compared in the response of CBF in the somatosensory cortex to mechanic stimulation of the whiskers (3 Hz, 50 s) and respiratory hyperсapnia (gas mixture with 5 % СО2, 5 minutes). Animals were anesthetized to enable registration of linear blood flow velocity using the laser speckle contrast imaging. The reactions of CBF to whisker stimulation did not differ between the two groups; however, in the hypercapnic test, the increase in CBF in Panx1 knockout mice was less than in the control. The unequal contribution of Panx1 to the local and global increase in CBF may be due to the different amount of Panx1 in the cell types involved in the development of these reactions.