While studies have shown that Tibetans protect their tissues from damage caused by low oxygen levels at high altitude, other studies have shown that people adapted to life in the Andes mountains have genetic variations that protect their hearts. In a recent study presented at the 2023 American Physiology Summit, scientists discovered that 68% of Andean highlanders carry a single nucleotide variation in the gene responsible for encoding the protein intercellular adhesion molecule 1, or ICAM1. For comparison, only 20% of Americans and 6% of people worldwide carry this variation.
Hypoxic conditions are known to activate the ICAM1 gene. So, it is not surprising that freely circulating levels of ICAM1 protein are high in patients with COPD, coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis, and other cardiovascular diseases in which blood flow and oxygen delivery in the body are impaired.
What is unique about this single nucleotide variation is that it makes ICAM1 less soluble in the blood, which may explain why people who carry this variation have lower systolic blood pressure.
Source:
J Yu, W Gu, C Anza-Ramirez, C Huff, R Bohlender, F Villafuerte, T Simonson. A putatively adaptive missense variant in ICAM1 is associated with systolic blood pressure in Andean highlanders. 2023 American Physiology Summit Abstracts. Physiology. 38(S1), May 2023.
Categories: Environment, Hibernation and Hypoxia, Physiology on the Road
Tags: American Physiological Society, American Physiology Summit, Andean, blood pressure, high altitude, ICAM1, physiology
Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle 
