Comparative study of high altitude chronic hypoxia on renal function in yak and migrated cattle on Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the difference of renal function among yak, migrated cattle on Qinghai-tibetan plateau and lowland cattle, and to further explore the characteristics of renal to adapt chronic hypoxia. METHODS: The serum samples of yak(n=84) were collected at 3 000 m,3 500 m,4 000 m and 4 300 m respectively,meanwhile the serum samples of migrated cattle on plateau (n=22) and lowland cattle (n=39) were also collected.The levels of blood urea nitrogen(BUN), creatinine(Crea), blood urea nitrogen/creatinine(BUN/Cr), uric acid(UA), carbon dioxide binding rate(CO2cp), glucose(GLU) in serum were measured by using fully automatic blood biochemical analyzer. We analysed the differences among the above renal functions. RESULTS: With the altitudeincreased, the results showed the levels of UA and CO2cp of yak were increased significantly, as compared to cattle, the levels of BUN and BUN/Cr were increased significantly compared with migrated cattle on plateau and lowland cattle, thelevels of CO2cp and GLU were decreased significantly compared with lowland cattle. As compared to migrated cattle on plateau, the levels of BUN and BUN/Cr of lowland cattle were decreased significantly, the levels of UA and CO2cp were increased significantly. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that theyak were adaptedto the plateau hypoxia environment and migrated cattle maybe not adapt to the low oxygen environment, they were under the stress situation.