Systems biology approach to study the high altitude adaptation in Tibetans

The aim of this work was to study an integrative systems biology research strategy to construct a network including the protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) and identify the functional biological processes and pathways for high-altitude adaptation in Tibetans. The pathway enrichment analysis revealed that the genes in the network were mainly involved in signling the pathways and the function of microRNAs was concentrated in the signling pathways, which suggested that miRNAs might contribute to the Tibetans high-altitude adaptation through the participation in signaling pathway. These results contribute to better understanding on the high-altitude adaptation of the Tibetans.