Sherpa brain glucose metabolism and defense adaptations against chronic hypoxia

Abstract

The brain of hypoxia-tolerant vertebrates is known to survive extreme oxygen limitation at least in part because of very low rats of ATP utilization and ATP production. To asses whether similar adaptations are involved in healthy humans during hypoxia adaptation over generational time, we initially used positron-emission tomography measurements of glucose metabolic rates in the brain of Quechuas, whose ancestors have been indigenous to the Andes at altitudes between approximately 3,300 and 4,500 m for several hundred years. Workers in this field generally believe that the lineage of Sherpas has been indigenous to the Himalayas for even longer and that Sherpas and other peoples indigenous to the Tibetan plateau are perhaps the most exquisitely hypoxia adapted of all humans. For this reason, in this study we extended our database to include Sherpas. With the use of the same protocol as before, two metabolic states were analyzed: 1) the presumed normal (hypoxia-adapted) state, monitored as soon as possible after subjects left the Himalayas and 2) the deacclimated state, monitored after 3 wk at low altitudes. Positron-emission tomography measurements of 2-[18F]deoxy-2-fluoro-D-glucose metabolic rates, quantified in 26 regions of the brain, indicated that the Sherpas' brain metabolism differed significantly from that of Quechuas but was essentially identical to that of lowlanders. Region-by-region patterns were similar in all three groups, indicating that the regional organization of glucose metabolism in the brain is a conservative, relatively constant characteristic.