Abstract
Hypoxia is a condition wherein an organism, a cell or a region of an organ
does not receive adequate levels of oxygen to carry out normal life processes. The
ability to sense oxygen levels and respond appropriately is termed “oxygen sensing”
which might be used in certain cases to describe the biological effects of hypoxia.
Hypoxia is an important facet involved in multiple diseases. Ranging from highaltitude pulmonary edema to cancer, oxygen-sensing molecular networks are crucial for
survival and have a notable impact on human health systems. The type, duration, and
intensity of hypoxic episodes have been found to have a multitude of effects ranging
from beneficial to harmful in diverse conditions like obesity, type 2 diabetes and
obstructive sleep apnea. A very important niche of hypoxia is the study of
environmental stressors also called high-altitude hypoxia. High-altitude hypoxia holds
multiple molecular similarities with diabetes, cancer, obesity, and other diseases like
COPD. In addition, unregulated exposure to hypobaric hypoxia is known to directly
cause high-altitude illnesses like HAPE/HACE. An interesting facet of high-altitude
hypoxia is the ability of the molecular and physiological systems to acclimatize to the
high altitude. This acclimatization is known to prevent the occurrence of high-altitude
illnesses. This review highlights the previous studies to build a framework that
elucidates the occurrence of hypobaric hypoxia, its socio-economic impact, molecular
underpinnings, and correlation with inflammation, cancer, diabetes, obesity and
possible therapeutic approaches to these diseases.