Concepts in hypoxia reborn

The human fetus develops in a profoundly hypoxic environment. Thus, the foundations of our physiology are built in the most hypoxic conditions that we are ever likely to experience: the womb. This magnitude of exposure to hypoxia in utero is rarely experienced in adult life, with few exceptions, including severe pathophysiology in critical illness and environmental hypobaric hypoxia at high altitude. Indeed, the lowest recorded levels of...