Markers of physiological stress during exercise under conditions of normoxia, normobaric hypoxia, hypobaric hypoxia, and genuine high altitude

David Woods, John O'Hara, Christopher Boos, Peter Hodkinson, Costas Tsakirides, Neil Hill, Darren Jose, Amanda Hawkins, Kelly Phillipson, Antonia Hazlerigg, Nicola Arjomandkhah, Liam Gallagher, David Holdsworth, Mark Cooke, Nicholas Green, Adrian Mellor

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    40 Citations (Scopus)
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    Abstract

    Purpose: To investigate whether there is a differential response at rest and following exercise to conditions of genuine high altitude (GHA), normobaric hypoxia (NH), hypobaric hypoxia (HH), and normobaric normoxia (NN).
    Method: Markers of sympathoadrenal and adrenocortical function [plasma normetanephrine (PNORMET), metanephrine (PMET), cortisol], myocardial injury [highly sensitive cardiac troponin T (hscTnT)], and function [N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP)] were evaluated at rest and with exercise under NN, at 3375 m in the Alps (GHA) and at equivalent simulated altitude under NH and HH. Participants cycled for 2 h [15-min warm-up, 105 min at 55% Wmax (maximal workload)] with venous blood samples taken prior (T0), immediately following (T120) and 2-h post-exercise (T240).
    Results: Exercise in the three hypoxic environments produced a similar pattern of response with the only difference between environments being in relation to PNORMET. Exercise in NN only induced a rise in PNORMET and PMET.
    Conclusion: Biochemical markers that reflect sympathoadrenal, adrenocortical, and myocardial responses to physiological stress demonstrate significant differences in the response to exercise under conditions of normoxia versus hypoxia, while NH and HH appear to induce broadly similar responses to GHA and may, therefore, be reasonable surrogates.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)893-900
    Number of pages7
    JournalEuropean Journal of Applied Physiology
    Volume117
    Issue number5
    Early online date15 Mar 2017
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2017

    Keywords

    • High Altitude
    • Hypobaric Hypoxia
    • Normobaric Hypoxia
    • NT-proBNP
    • Adrenal
    • Cardiac
    • Exercise

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