Studies on metabolic alterations due to hypobaric hypoxia in serum using NMR spectroscopy

Abstract

Introduction The main physiological challenge in high altitude environment is hypoxia which affects the aerobic metabolism reducing the energy supply. These changes may further progress towards extreme environment related diseases. Rarely has the high-altitude biology been studied using system sciences and omics high-throughput technologies. Objective In the present study, 1H-NMR-based metabolomics, along with multivariate analysis, were employed in a preclinical rat model to characterise the serum metabolic changes under chronic hypobaric hypoxia (HH) stress. Material and methods Rats were exposed to simulated hypobaric hypoxia equivalent of 6700 m above the sea level. The serum samples were collected from control and HH-exposure (7, 14, and 21 days) of hypobaric hypoxia. Results and discussion The 1H-NMR metabolomics of the serum showed alterations in the metabolism of membranes, amino-acids altered cellular bioenergetics and osmoregulation. Multivariate statistical analysis revealed alterations in acetoacetate, choline, glutamine, acetate, betaine, ketone bodies and branched amino acid metabolites. Conclusion Present findings establishes the fingerprint biomarkers for chronic environmental hypoxia which will help in understanding extreme environment related health problems, early detection and developing strategies to clinically address high altitude hypoxia.