Percent of oxygen saturation of arterial hemoglobin among Bolivian Aymara at 3,900-4,000 m

Citation
Cm. Beall et al., Percent of oxygen saturation of arterial hemoglobin among Bolivian Aymara at 3,900-4,000 m, AM J P ANTH, 108(1), 1999, pp. 41-51
Citations number
43
Categorie Soggetti
Sociology & Antropology","Experimental Biology
Journal title
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
ISSN journal
00029483 → ACNP
Volume
108
Issue
1
Year of publication
1999
Pages
41 - 51
Database
ISI
SICI code
0002-9483(199901)108:1<41:POOSOA>2.0.ZU;2-Z
Abstract
A range of variation in percent of oxygen saturation of arterial hemoglobin (SaO(2)) among healthy individuals at a given high altitude indicates diff erences in physiological hypoxemia despite uniform ambient hypoxic stress. In populations native to the Tibetan plateau, a significant portion of the variance is attributable to additive genetic factors, and there is a major gene influencing SaO(2). To determine whether there is genetic variance in other high-altitude populations, we designed a study to test the hypothesis that additive genetic factors contribute to phenotypic variation in SaO(2) among Aymara natives of the Andean plateau, a population geographically di stant from the Tibetan plateau and with a long, separate history of high-al titude residence. The average SaO(2) of 381 Aymara at 3,900-4,000 m was 92 +/- 0.15% (SEM) with a range of 84-99%. The average was 2.6% higher than th e average SaO(2) of a sample of Tibetans at 3,800-4,065 m measured with the same techniques. Quantitative genetic analyses of the Aymara sample detect ed no significant variance attributable to genetic factors. The presence of genetic variance in SaO(2) in the Tibetan sample and its absence in the Ay mara sample indicate there is potential for natural selection on this trait in the Tibetan but not the Aymara population. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.