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

提出的高风险探索性研究为安第斯人和西藏人暴露于相同的高海拔缺氧应激下的氧气运输特征差异的进化问题提供了一种新的途径。该研究假设，安第斯人在高海拔地区的血氧含量高于相同海拔地区的西藏人的原因是一氧化氮的产生不同，一氧化氮是一种迄今未在高海拔地区的土著人口中测量到的气体。这项拟议中的研究将在玻利维亚和中国西藏自治区进行，旨在验证这样一种假设，即高海拔缺氧会减少肺部一氧化氮的产生，从而导致肺动脉将血液重新输送到肺部含氧更好的部分，并改善血氧。本文提出的探索性研究将一氧化氮作为一种与高海拔适应研究相关的特征，扩展了我们对人类高海拔适应和人类进化的认识。

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.