title: Combined intermittent hypobaric hypoxia and muscle electro-stimulation: a method to increase circulating progenitor cell concentration?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Our goal was to test whether short-term intermittent hypobaric hypoxia (IHH) at a level well tolerated by healthy humans could, in combination with muscle electro-stimulation (ME), mobilize circulating progenitor cells (CPC) and increase their concentration in peripheral circulation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nine healthy male subjects were subjected, as the active group (HME), to a protocol involving IHH plus ME. IHH exposure consisted of four, three-hour sessions at a barometric pressure of 540 hPa (equivalent to an altitude of 5000 m). These sessions took place on four consecutive days. ME was applied in two separate 20-minute periods during each IHH session. Blood samples were obtained from an antecubital vein on three consecutive days immediately before the experiment, and then 24 h, 48 h, 4 days, 7 days and 14 days after the last day of hypoxic exposure. Four months later a control study was carried out involving seven of the original subjects (CG), who underwent the same protocol of blood samples but without receiving any special stimulus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In comparison with the CG the HME group showed only a non-significant increase in the number of CPC CD34+ cells on the fourth day after the combined IHH and ME treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CPC levels oscillated across the study period and provide no firm evidence to support an increased CPC count after IHH plus ME, although it is not possible to know if this slight increase observed is physiologically relevant. Further studies are required to understand CPC dynamics and the physiology and physiopathology of the hypoxic stimulus.
authors.affiliation: Intensive Care Unit of Bellvitge University Hospital and Department of Physiological Sciences II of University of Barcelona, Feixa Llarga s/n, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat-08907, Barcelona, Spain. lcorral@bellvitgehospital.cat.
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Corral
authors.forename: Casimiro
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Javierre
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blasi
authors.forename: Ginés
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Viscor
authors.forename: Antoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ricart
authors.forename: Josep Lluis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Ventura
mesh_terms: D001769:Blood; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*