Amid standoff with India, China conducts genetic study of altitude adaptation in Tibetans

Teams from a Chinese hospital and PLA have collected samples of around 1,20,000 Tibetans over 15 years to study “plateau diseases”. This assumes significance in the wake of reports claiming that Chinese troops stationed near the Line of Actual Control were struggling due to high altitude and harsh climatic conditions.

China has reportedly opened the world’s largest “plateau human genetic resources biological sample bank” in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for medical researchers to study “plateau diseases” and improve the country's health support capabilities in the region. According to a report in the state-owned Global Times, expert teams from Xinqiao Hospital in Southwest China completed a large-scale field study on the plateau population of more than 1,00,000 people in 15 years. An additional reserve of 20,000 samples was contributed by a medical research base with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the report added. This means that the large-scale study was conducted on around 1,20,000 Tibetans over 15 years.