High Risk Exploratory Research: Exhaled nitric oxide of Andean and Tibetan High-Altitude Natives

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The proposed high risk exploratory research introduces a new approach to the evolutionary question of why there is a contrast in the oxygen transport characteristics of Andean and Tibetan natives exposed to the same stress of high-altitude hypoxia. It hypothesizes that the reason why Andean populations at high altitude have higher blood oxygen content than their Tibetan counterparts at the same altitude is due to differences in the production of nitric oxide, a gas heretofore not measured in native high altitude populations. The proposed research will be carried out in Bolivia and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and is designed to test the hypothesis that high-altitude hypoxia decreases the production of nitric oxide in the lungs which in turn causes the pulmonary arteries to reroute blood to the better-oxygenated portions of the lung and improves blood oxygen. It will test the hypothesis that individuals with lower exhaled nitric oxide levels have higher oxygen saturation, and that Andean populations have higher nitric oxygen levels than Tibetans as a result of their higher blood oxygen content. The proposed exploratory research introduces nitric oxide as a trait relevant to the study of high altitude adaptation and expands our knowledge of human adaptation to high altitude and our understanding of human evolution.