SIX medical students from Edinburgh university are to lead an ambitious, televised expedition to Bolivia to study the effects of altitude on the human body.
They will conduct a series of experiments at more than 5000 metres in an effort to shed new light on potentially physiological conditions which can strike randomly at high altitudes.
The Apex Bolivia team from Edinburgh University who set off yesterday will work for 10 days in a high-altitude laboratory and conduct further research during the ascent of the 6460-metre Illimani peak.
They will be accompanied by three doctors and a further 17 medical students who will act as experimental subjects. A camera crew from the Tomorrow's World television programme will also be with them.
During the trip, they will carry out research into conditions such as acute mountain sickness and high altitude cerebral oedema.
The study may also help to clarify why medical conditions such as asthma and chronic bronchitis are caused, or complicated, by shortage of oxygen.
Kenneth Baillie, the expedition leader, said: ''This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us. Human function at altitude is one of the most neglected, and least understood, aspects of physiology.
''At high altitude, for example, you hear of highly trained athletes being outrun by couch potatoes but the reason remains a mystery.''
Reinhold Messner, the first mountaineer to climb all the world's 8000m peaks and the first to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen, said: ''This is a unique expedition combining cutting edge research with a stunning high-altitude environment and the energy of youth.''
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