Endothelial cells' responses to hypoxia and reperfusion.

Our results suggest that longer periods of hypoxia lead to a deficiency of high energy phosphates. Reoxygenation leads to the formation of ROS, irrespectively of the duration of hypoxia. It might be concluded that a diminished level of intracellular high energy phosphates upon hypoxia followed by oxidative stress plays a key role in the reperfusion associated cellular dysfunctions.