Limitations
An important limitation of this study was the logistical limitation in
exposing the animals to even longer low pO2 durations
lasting 30 or more days. Another minor limitation of this study was the
inability to directly juxtapose the lung proteome and plasma proteome
owing to technical limitations in IPA. Both had to be analyzed
separately.
Human volunteers recruited for the study, although picked at random from
a pool of eligible volunteers, still represent a very small sample size
for any statistical robustness of the plasma proteins analyzed. These
proteins are only qualitative indicators for the processes mentioned and
require larger cohort based studies in the future.