ArticleJournal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985)2017
Sublingual microcirculatory blood flow and vessel density in Sherpas at high altitude.
Article in Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on microvascular physiology at 4559 m altitude - A randomised controlled trial (Xtreme Alps).Nitric oxide : biology and chemistry · 2020Trial
- Human adaptation to high-altitude: A contemporary comparison of the oxygen cascade in Andean, Tibetan and Ethiopian highlanders.Experimental physiology · 2026Review
- Microcirculatory and Rheological Adaptive Mechanisms at High Altitude in European Lowlander Hikers and Nepalese Highlanders.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Sublingual Microcirculation Specificity of Sickle Cell Patients: Morphology of the Microvascular Bed, Blood Rheology, and Local Hemodynamics.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- A change of heart: Mechanisms of cardiac adaptation to acute and chronic hypoxia.The Journal of physiology · 2022Article
- Time Domains of Hypoxia Responses and -Omics Insights.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Review
- Article
- The adaptive benefit of evolved increases in hemoglobin-OBMC biology · 2021Article
- High-altitude rodents have abundant collaterals that protect against tissue injury after cerebral, coronary and peripheral artery occlusion.Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2021Article
- Effects of Normoxia, Hyperoxia, and Mild Hypoxia on Macro-Hemodynamics and the Skeletal Muscle Microcirculation in Anesthetised Rats.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Article
- Exposure to acute normobaric hypoxia results in adaptions of both the macro- and microcirculatory system.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Muscle sympathetic reactivity to apneic and exercise stress in high-altitude Sherpa.American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology · 2020Article
- Enhanced flow-motion complexity of skin microvascular perfusion in Sherpas and lowlanders during ascent to high altitude.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- The overlooked significance of plasma volume for successful adaptation to high altitude in Sherpa and Andean natives.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Successful climbing to extreme altitude is a hairy venture.The Journal of physiology · 2019Article
- Recruitment of non-perfused sublingual capillaries increases microcirculatory oxygen extraction capacity throughout ascent to 7126 m.The Journal of physiology · 2019Article
- Population History and Altitude-Related Adaptation in the Sherpa.Frontiers in physiology · 2019Review
- Microcirculatory Differences in Children With Congenital Heart Disease According to Cyanosis and Age.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2019Article
- UBC-Nepal expedition: peripheral fatigue recovers faster in Sherpa than lowlanders at high altitude.The Journal of physiology · 2018Article
- Second consensus on the assessment of sublingual microcirculation in critically ill patients: results from a task force of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.Intensive care medicine · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Anecdotal reports suggest that Sherpa highlanders demonstrate extraordinary tolerance to hypoxia at high altitude, despite exhibiting lower arterial oxygen content than acclimatized lowlanders. This study tested the hypothesis that Sherpas exposed to hypobaric hypoxia on ascent to 5,300 m develop increased microcirculatory blood flow as a means of maintaining tissue oxygen delivery. Incident dark-field imaging was used to obtain images of the sublingual microcirculation from 64 Sherpas and 69 lowlanders. Serial measurements were obtained from participants undertaking an ascent from baseline testing (35 m or 1,300 m) to Everest base camp (5,300 m) and following subsequent descent in Kathmandu (1,300 m). Microcirculatory flow index and heterogeneity index were used to provide indexes of microcirculatory flow, while capillary density was assessed using small vessel density. Sherpas demonstrated significantly greater microcirculatory blood flow at Everest base camp, but not at baseline testing or on return in Kathmandu, than lowlanders. Additionally, blood flow exhibited greater homogeneity at 5,300 and 1,300 m (descent) in Sherpas than lowlanders. Sublingual small vessel density was not different between the two cohorts at baseline testing or at 1,300 m; however, at 5,300 m, capillary density was up to 30% greater in Sherpas. These data suggest that Sherpas can maintain a significantly greater microcirculatory flow per unit time and flow per unit volume of tissue at high altitude than lowlanders. These findings support the notion that peripheral vascular factors at the microcirculatory level may be important in the process of adaptation to hypoxia.
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