Replication Data for: Potential for flexible lactate shuttling between astrocytes and neurons to mitigate against diving-induced hypoxia

The lack of oxygen, i.e. hypoxia, is a challenging condition for several species. The mammalian brain is particularly sensitive to hypoxia as neurons, the major cerebral cell type, are highly dependent on mitochondrial aerobic metabolism to produce energy and perform their functions. Neurons can preserve their aerobic metabolism by being metabolically coupled with the astrocytes. These are the major type of glia cell in the brain and are anaerobic cells, meaning that they do not need oxygen to produce energy. The end product of the anaerobic metabolism is lactate which, according to the astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle (ANLS) hypothesis, it is transported to the neurons where it is used as fuel for aerobic metabolism. Recent evidence has shown that this mechanism might not be common to all mammalian brains, particularly for some hypoxia-tolerant species like pinnipeds. Studies on the deep-diving hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) suggest that the shuttling of lactate between cell types in their brain might be reversed, implying a lower dependency on oxygen by neurons (reverse- ANLS). In this dataset we report results from mitochondrial oxygen consumption measurements, quantification of mitochondrial density and size and distribution of the lactate transporter (monocarboxylate transporter 4 – MCT4) in both astrocytes and neurons in the hooded seal brain.