Mean Pulmonary Arterial Pressure Decreases with Exposure Time in the Tibet Plateau |Biomedgrid

Hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (HPH) is a severe and progressive disease characterized by pulmonary vascular remodeling, increased pulmonary vascular resistance, right ventricular hypertrophy and, if not reversed, death. We maintained laboratory rats at two altitudes (2261 and 4300 meters, 75.2% O2 and 58.5% O2) on the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau and measured the changes in mean pulmonary pressure (mPAP) over two months. In the first month mPAP increased by 30 mmHg, while in the second month mPAP returned to normal. We hypothesized that the secondary decrease in mean pulmonary artery pressure was associated with the production of vasodilators, decreased cardiac output, and genes involved in adaptation to higher altitudes, including EGLN1, PPARα and HIF-2α.