Immune Response of Rabbits during Short Term Exposure to High Altitude

Abstract

THERE is evidence that both a hypoxic stimulus, such as high altitude exposure, and an immunogenic stimulus act by inducing cell differentiation of some pluripotential stem cell^1,2. It may or may not be the same pluripotential stem cell on which these stimuli act, the former causing differentiation into erythrocytes, the latter into lymphoid cells which produce antibody (Ab). Recent results have shown that a hypoxic stimulus also increases the immune response of animals exposed to chronic high altitude^3–5. This suggests that perhaps there is a synergistic action between the two stimuli on a common target cell or organ. If cell differentiation is involved in the synergistic action, then two simultaneous stimuli of equal duration applied to undifferentiated stem cells would be expected to be more effective in producing a demonstrable increase in the immune response than separate, successive applications of the two stimuli.