FIGURE 1.

Hypoxia and developmental origins of health and disease. Gestational hypoxia is associated with women residing at high altitude, for whom having preeclampsia and placental insufficiency imposes a significant challenge to both the mother and the developing fetus. To cope with such an adverse environmental condition, the mother and her fetus as well as the placenta undergo significant changes to achieve a certain degree of adaptation to ensure reproductive success and to sustain life before birth. Notably, the expression patterns of suites of genes encoding receptors, ion channels, enzymes, and other signal proteins are altered via epigenetic modifications. However, certain trade-offs occur along with this adaptation and result in permanent changes in phenotypic plasticity and cell/tissue function, leading to increased risk of disease later in life.