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The effect of high-altitude on human skeletal muscle energetics: 31P-MRS results from the caudwell xtreme everest expedition

Edwards, LM; Murray, AJ; Tyler, DJ; Kemp, GJ; Holloway, CJ; Robbins, PA; Neubauer, S; ... Clarke, K; + view all (2010) The effect of high-altitude on human skeletal muscle energetics: 31P-MRS results from the caudwell xtreme everest expedition. PLoS ONE , 5 (5) , Article e10681. 10.1371/journal.pone.0010681. Green open access

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Abstract

Many disease states are associated with regional or systemic hypoxia. The study of healthy individuals exposed to high-altitude hypoxia offers a way to explore hypoxic adaptation without the confounding effects of disease and therapeutic interventions. Using 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging, we investigated skeletal muscle energetics and morphology after exposure to hypobaric hypoxia in seven altitude-naïve subjects (trekkers) and seven experienced climbers. The trekkers ascended to 5300 m while the climbers ascended above 7950 m. Before the study, climbers had better mitochondrial function (evidenced by shorter phosphocreatine recovery halftime) than trekkers: 16±1 vs. 22±2 s (mean ± SE, p<0.01). Climbers had higher resting [Pi] than trekkers before the expedition and resting [Pi] was raised across both groups on their return (PRE: 2.6±0.2 vs. POST: 3.0±0.2 mM, p<0.05). There was significant muscle atrophy post-CXE (PRE: 4.7±0.2 vs. POST: 4.5±0.2 cm2, p<0.05), yet exercising metabolites were unchanged. These results suggest that, in response to high altitude hypoxia, skeletal muscle function is maintained in humans, despite significant atrophy.

Type: Article
Title: The effect of high-altitude on human skeletal muscle energetics: 31P-MRS results from the caudwell xtreme everest expedition
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010681
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010681
Language: English
Additional information: © 2010 Edwards et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Drs. Edwards and Holloway were supported by a grant from Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, code: ASRJMT1). Dr Tyler was funded by the Medical Research Council, grant number G0601490. Caudwell Xtreme Everest (CXE) is a research project coordinated by the UCL Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine, University College London, United Kingdom, and funded by grants from the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, Intensive Care Society, Sir Halley Stewart Trust, John Caudwell, BOC Medical (now Linde Gas Therapeutics), Lilly Critical Care, The London Clinic, Smiths Medical, Deltex Medical and The Rolex Foundation. All monies were given as unrestricted grants: the funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Some of this work was undertaken at University College London Hospital-University College London Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre, which received a proportion of funding from the United Kingdom Department of Health's National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centres funding scheme. This project was partly funded by grants from BOC Medical (now Linde Gas Therapeutics), Lilly Critical Care, The London Clinic, Smiths Medical, Deltex Medical and The Rolex Foundation. All monies were given as unrestricted grants: the funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This does not alter the authors' adherence to any of the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine > Experimental and Translational Medicine
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1298401
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