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Science 22 February 1974:
Vol. 183. no. 4126, pp. 743 - 744
DOI: 10.1126/science.183.4126.743
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Articles

Survival at Extreme Altitude: Protective Effect of Increased Hemoglobin-Oxygen Affinity

John W. Eaton 1, T. D. Skelton 2, and Elaine Berger 3

1 Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis 55455
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota
3 Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School

Decreased hemoglobin-oxygen affinity is thought to be of adaptive value to humans and nonindigenous animals at high altitude. To test this, hemoglobin-oxygen affinity was modified by carbamoylation of hemoglobin in rats. Exposure of control (low oxygen affinity) and experimental (high oxygen affinity) animals to a pressure equivalent to high altitude revealed that increased, rather than decreased, hemoglobin-oxygen affinity will permit survival at greatly reduced environmental oxygen pressures.


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