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Protective Effects from the Ischemic/Hypoxic Stress Induced by Labor in the High-Altitude Tibetan Placenta

  • Maternal Fetal Medicine/Biology. Short Communication
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Abstract

Labor and vaginal delivery cause acute ischemic/hypoxic insult to the placenta. Previous studies demonstrate that placentas from high altitude non-natives showed blunted responses to ischemic/hypoxic insult caused by labor and vaginal birth, and there were some differences in the ATP/ADP production ratio. We hypothesized that adapted highlanders would not have a stress response to the acute hypoxia/ischemia of labor. Tibetan laboring (n = 10) and non-laboring (n = 5) and European descendants laboring (n = 10) and non-laboring (n = 5) high-altitude placentas were analyzed using genome-wide expression array analysis. There was no evidence for ischemic/hypoxic stress in high-altitude Tibetan laboring as compared with non-laboring placentas, while there were differences in gene expression between laboring and non-laboring placentas from high-altitude European descendants. Our results provide evidence for adaptation to acute hypoxic ischemic insult caused by labor and vaginal birth in placentas in a high-altitude native Tibetan population.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all high-altitude pregnant women for participating in this study.

Funding

This project has been supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No.2012CB518200), the Program of International Science and Technology Cooperation of China (Grant No.2011DFA32720), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81641081).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for High Altitude Medicine, Qinghai University, Xining, 810001, Qinghai, China

    Wuren Tana, Tenzing Noryung & Ge Ri-Li

  2. Key Laboratory for Application of High-Altitude Medicine in Qinghai Province, Xining, China

    Wuren Tana & Ge Ri-Li

  3. Qinghai University Affiliated Hospital, Qinghai, 810001, China

    Tenzing Noryung

  4. Centre for Trophoblast Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Graham J. Burton

  5. Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Martha Tissot van Patot

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  1. Wuren Tana
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  5. Ge Ri-Li
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Correspondence to Wuren Tana.

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None Declared.

Ethical Content

The research ethics committee from Qinghai University Medical College (Qinghai, China), and the Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board (Aurora, Colorado) approved this study. Human term (38 to 40 weeks) placentas were obtained from women of Tibetan ancestry undergoing normal pregnancies at the Yushu Prefecture Hospital (3780 m) in Qinghai Province, with informed written consent in Tibetan language and explained by local Tibetan doctors.

Non-native high-altitude placental tissues were donated by the Centre for Trophoblast Research at the University of Cambridge, UK; the samples used in this study were obtained from 15 women of European descent, recruited in Leadville, CO, with informed written consent form explained by researcher and local mid wives.

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Tana, W., Noryung, T., Burton, G.J. et al. Protective Effects from the Ischemic/Hypoxic Stress Induced by Labor in the High-Altitude Tibetan Placenta. Reprod. Sci. 28, 659–664 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43032-020-00443-9

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