Breath holding diving (BH) is a discipline practiced by
an increasing number of people. BH-divers are exposed to
extreme environmental conditions such as: increased hyperbaric
pressure and low temperature that caused change in
arterial blood gases (1-2) and induced an human diving
response which includes bradycardia, reduced cardiac output,
increased arterial blood pressure and peripheral vasoconstriction
(3). Some of these adaptations are still not fully
understood, so we decided to investigate some biomarkers
that should be involved in this disorders starting to analyse
Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α). We enrolled in
our study 31 healthy free divers from different part of Sicily,
aged 41,86 ± 11,41, weight 77,52 ± 11,30 kg, height
175,19 ± 6,13 cm, who practiced this activity for more than
5 years. We asked them to perform 5 consecutive dives at
20 meters, without permanence on the bottom, with free
recovery between the different dives. A baseline venous
blood sample was taken immediately after surfacing from
the 5th dive (less than 3 minutes). The samples were stored
to -80 until the analysis were done using ELISA method. The
results showed that comparing HIF-1α value before and after
the dives, there were an increase in the concentration that
started from 158,43 pg/ml and be at end 246,06 pg/ml.
In conclusion, the Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha can be
considered co-responsible for various phenomena, certainly
not with pathological destinies, but rather working with
“adaptation” phenomena to this type of activity. These are
just the preliminary results that need further investigations to
be confirmed