Hypoxia is and remains a major public health issue in many populated mountainous areas all over the world. This book is directly derived from a NATO-sponsored international meeting on problems of high altitude medicine and biology, which was held on the shores of lake Issyk-Kul, in Kyrghyzstan, in 2006. Overall, the meeting was an ideal mix of cell biology, integrative physiology and medical applications.

This book is directly derived from a NATO-sponsored international meeting on problems of high altitude medicine and biology, which was held on the shores of lake of Issyk-Kul, in Kyrghyzstan, in June 5-6 2006. It was a surprise for several European and North and South-American scientists to discover the still on-going momentum high level altitude physiology research, which was extremely active but insufficiently acknowledged in this remote Central Asian country at the time of the USSR. Hypoxia is and remains a major public health issue in many populated mountainous areas all over the world. We are sure that this book will be become a long-lasting essential reference.