Ethnically Tibetan women in Nepal with low hemoglobin concentration have better reproductive outcomes.

ABSTRACT: Background and objectives: Tibetans have distinctively low hemoglobin concentrations at high altitudes compared with visitors and Andean highlanders. This study hypothesized that natural selection favors an unelevated hemoglobin concentration among Tibetans. It considered nonheritable sociocultural factors affecting reproductive success and tested the hypotheses that a higher percent of oxygen saturation of hemoglobin (indicating less stress) or lower hemoglobin concentration (indicating dampened response) associated with higher lifetime reproductive success. Methodology: We sampled 1006 post-reproductive ethnically Tibetan women residing at 3000-4100 m in Nepal. We collected reproductive histories by interviews in native dialects and noninvasive physiological measurements. R

SUBMITTER: Cho JI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5442430 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature