Beyond Altitude Sickness: How Low Oxygen Can Rewire Your Immune System
Researchers found that brief hypoxia, experienced at altitude or during illness, reprograms bone marrow progenitors, creating neutrophils less effective at fighting bacteria.
This epigenetic “memory” persisted for months in climbers after descent.
hypoxia leaves a “memory” in the immune system, weakening bacterial defense for months after descent.
A team at the University of Edinburgh has shown that even a brief spell of low oxygen can reprogram key immune cells at the bone-marrow level.
Author's summary: Low oxygen reprograms immune cells.