Cited by 251High Altitude and HypoxiaPregnancy and preeclampsia studiesBirth, Development, and Health

Humans at high altitude: Hypoxia and fetal growth

Open access
Moore, Lorna G., Charles, Shelton M., Julian, Colleen G.·2011·Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology

Abstract

High-altitude studies offer insight into the evolutionary processes and physiological mechanisms affecting the early phases of the human lifespan. Chronic hypoxia slows fetal growth and reduces the pregnancy-associated rise in uterine artery (UA) blood flow. Multigenerational vs. shorter-term high-altitude residents are protected from the altitude-associated reductions in UA flow and fetal growth. Presently unknown is whether this fetal-growth protection is due to the greater delivery or metabolism of oxygen, glucose or other substrates or to other considerations such as mechanical factors protecting fragile fetal villi, the creation of a reserve protecting against ischemia/reperfusion injury, or improved placental O(2) transfer as the result of narrowing the A-V O(2) difference and raising uterine P(v)O₂. Placental growth and development appear to be normal or modified at high altitude in ways likely to benefit diffusion. Much remains to be learned concerning the effects of chronic hypoxia on embryonic development. Further research is required for identifying the fetoplacental and maternal mechanisms responsible for transforming the maternal vasculature and regulating UA blood flow and fetal growth. Genomic as well as epigenetic studies are opening new avenues of investigation that can yield insights into the basic pathways and evolutionary processes involved.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.resp.2011.04.017

Cites

88 of 88 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The high-altitude decline in birth weight is less in populations with longer residency at high altitude, such as Tibetans and Andeans, than in populations like Han and Europeans who have settled at altitude more recently.

    “However, the high-altitude decline in birth weight is less in populations with longer residency at high altitude, such as the Tibetans and Andeans, than in populations like the Han and Europeans who have settled at altitude more recently (214, 387, 443).”

    From Placental Origins of Chronic Disease (2016) · cites this paper as [387]

  • On average, there is a 100g decrease in birth weight per 1000m elevation in altitude, although the exact figure varies with the ethnicity of the population.

    “On average, there is a 100g decrease in birth weight per 1000m elevation in altitude, although the exact figure varies with the ethnicity of the population (387).”

    From Placental Origins of Chronic Disease (2016) · cites this paper as [387]

  • In human populations, the adverse consequences of high altitude on uterine artery diameter and uterine blood flow are less pronounced with long than short ancestry at high altitude.

    “In human populations, the adverse consequences of high altitude on uterine artery diameter and uterine blood flow are less pronounced with long than short ancestry at high altitude (295, 387).”

    From Placental Origins of Chronic Disease (2016) · cites this paper as [387]

  • Hypoxia affects both the placenta and fetus and is associated with impaired trophoblast invasion, poor villous development, altered vascularity, reduced spiral artery remodelling and low blood flow on both sides of the placenta.

    “It affects both the placenta and fetus and is associated with impaired trophoblast invasion, poor villous development, altered vascularity, reduced spiral artery remodelling and low blood flow on both sides of the placenta (387, 543, 600).”

    From Placental Origins of Chronic Disease (2016) · cites this paper as [387]

  • Overall amongst species, the morphological adaptations of the placenta will increase its oxygen diffusion capacity and aid oxygen delivery to the fetus at low maternal pO2.

    “Overall amongst species, the morphological adaptations of the placenta will increase its oxygen diffusion capacity and aid oxygen delivery to the fetus at low maternal pO2 (370, 387, 431).”

    From Placental Origins of Chronic Disease (2016) · cites this paper as [387]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

4 of the 92 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Julian C McCord J Browne V Rodriguez A Wilson M Rodriguez C Yamashiro H Hageman J Davilá R Bigham A Vargas E Moore L in review Enhanced enzymatic antioxidant activity during pregnancy in Andean compared with European residents of high altitude
  2. Kublickiene KR Nisell H Poston L 2000a 17B-Estradiol upregulates flow-mediated nitric oxide-induced dilation in small sub-cutaneous arteries from postmenopausal women Journal of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation 7 186A
  3. Moore LG Reeves JT Grover FT 2001b Small babies and big mountains: John Lichty solves a Colorado mystery in Leadville Attitudes on Altitude Univ Colorado Press Boulder 137 159
  4. Schwartz J Cioffi-Ragan D Beaty B DeSilva W Wilson M Julian C Moore L Galan H in review Altitude effects on fetal subcutaneous and lean tissues and on the fetal circulation

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Moore, L. G., Charles, S. M., & Julian, C. G.
Affiliations
  • Wake Forest University Health Sciences (US)
  • University of Colorado Denver (US)
Corresponding author
Moore, Lorna G.
Venue
Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2011-08
Volume
178
Issue
1
Pages
181-190
ISSN
1569-9048 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2009965116
Cited by
251
References
92
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 71 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 7
FWCI
1.17
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL-14985, HL079647, R01HL060131, P01HL014985, HL060131, R01HL079647)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH060131)
  • Fogarty International Center (TW-001188, R03TW001188)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › High Altitude and Hypoxia
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Pregnancy and preeclampsia studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
Keywords
high altitude, chronic hypoxia, fetal growth, uterine artery blood flow, placental oxygen transfer, ischemia-reperfusion injury, placental development, embryonic development, epigenetics
MeSH terms
Adaptation, Physiological, Altitude, Female, Fetal Hypoxia, Humans, Oxygen Consumption, Placenta, Pregnancy

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review