Relationship between serum iron, zinc, calcium, and HIF-1a—comparative analysis of 2 regions and 4 ethnic groups in China

BackgroundAltitude illness has serious effects on individuals who are not adequately acclimatized to high-altitude areas and may even lead to death. However, the individualized mechanisms of onset and preventive measures are not fully elucidated at present, especially the relationship between altitude illness and elements, which requires further in-depth research.MethodsFresh serum samples were collected from individuals who underwent health examinations at the two hospitals in Xining and Sanya between November 2021 and December 2021. The blood zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), and calcium (Ca) concentrations, as well as hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α) concentrations, were measured. This study conducted effective sample size estimation, repeated experiments, and used GraphPad Prism 9.0 and IBM SPSS version 19.0 software for comparative analysis of differences in the expression of elements and HIF-1α among different ethnic groups, altitudes, and concentration groups. Linear regression and multiple linear regression were employed to explore the relationships among elements and their correlation with HIF-1α.ResultsThis study included a total of 400 participants. The results from the repeated measurements indicated that the consistency of the laboratory test results was satisfactory. In terms of altitude differences, except for Fe (p = 0.767), which did not show significant variance between low and high altitude regions, Zn, Ca, and HIF-1α elements all exhibited notable differences between these areas (p