Respiratory and circulatory activities in carotid body-resected humans.

The respiratory and circulatory activities of patients who underwent carotid body resection (CBR) more than two decades ago were reviewed. No significant ventilatory response to continuous hypoxia was observed. However, in response to stimulation of peripheral chemoreceptors, transient hyperventilation occurred before hypoxemic blood arrived at the central nervous system (single-breath test), which indicated the presence of weak peripheral chemosensitivity. Because of this slight residual peripheral chemosensitivity, which was found shortly after the operation and apparently remained more or less unchanged for greater than 20 years, peripheral chemoreceptor activity, which has been reported in other animal species, does not seem to have returned. Delayed hypoxic hyperventilation reported in dogs and cats with CBR was not observed. Hypoxia significantly depressed the ventilatory response to CO2, but the delayed ventilatory depression with time that has been demonstrated in normal subjects did not occur. In our circulatory studies, hypoxia augmented the heart rate and slightly depressed the stroke volume and total peripheral resistance in the systemic circulation but induced no appreciable changes in arterial blood pressure or cardiac output. We used these results to partition the relative contributions to the overall circulatory response of carotid body stimulation, pulmonary inflation, and other modifying influences. From these calculations, it was inferred that the carotid body reflex plays a dominant role in vascular activities whereas the pulmonary inflation reflex dominates in cardiac activities in humans.     

Respiratory effects of stimulation of intercostal muscles and saphenous nerve in kittens

Effects of intercostal muscle stimulation were studied in 2- to 7-day-old kittens under ketamine-acepromazine anesthesia. Animals were vagotomized, paralyzed, and artificially ventilated. Stimuli applied during inspiration (TI) inhibited this phase. Stimulus strength necessary for TI inhibition decreased with time. However, an all-or-nothing effect was not always observed. Stimulation during expiration (TE) prolonged this phase. The responsiveness increased with increasing stimulus delay. The effects of intercostal muscle stimulation were compared with those recorded during saphenous nerve stimulation. Stimulation during TI prolonged this phase. Phrenic activity increased after a short-lasting decrease in the on-going activity. Stimulation during the first 50% of TE had variable effects, whereas stimulation with longer delay shortened this phase. Our results indicated that the pattern of breathing in newborns can be affected by both intercostal muscle and other somatic efferents. However, the mechanisms controlling respiratory timing may differ in newborns and in adults. Different effects of respiratory muscle and saphenous nerve stimulation suggest different transmitters involved or different sites of interaction of these inputs with the medullary respiratory rhythm generator.     

Size-related differences in parietal extrapleural and pleural liquid pressure distribution

The hydraulic pressure in the extrapleural parietal interstitium (Pepl) and in the pleural space over the costal side (Pliq) was measured in anesthetized spontaneously breathing supine adult mammals of increasing size (rats, dogs, and sheep) using saline-filled catheters and cannulas, respectively. From the Pliq and Pepl vs. lung height regressions it appears that in all species Pliq was significantly more subatmospheric than Pepl simultaneously measured at the same lung height. The vertical pleural liquid pressure gradient increased with size, amounting to -1, -0.69, and -0.44 cmH2O/cm in rats, dogs, and sheep, respectively. The vertical extrapleural liquid pressure gradient also increased with size, being -0.6, -0.52, and -0.33 cmH2O/cm in rats, dogs, and sheep, respectively. With increasing body size, the transpleural hydraulic pressure gradient (Ptp = Pepl - Pliq) at the level of the right atrium increased from 1.45 to 5.6 cmH2O going from rats to sheep. In all species Ptp increased, with lung height being greatest in the less dependent part of the pleural space.     

Respiratory effects of cigarette smoke, dust, and histamine in newborn rabbits

We studied the respiratory effects of cigarette smoke, 5% histamine aerosol, and dust in unanesthetized 1- to 7-day-old rabbits in a body plethysmograph. Cigarette smoke immediately provoked the animal's arousal and irregular breathing. Histamine and dust had no effect in some of the youngest animals. In others, 5-15 s from the onset of the exposure to either of the two stimuli, respiratory rate increased and the depth of breathing decreased. These changes were more pronounced with age. The fact that effects of dust and aerosol lessened with time of exposure showed adaptation to the stimuli. The age dependence of the reflex response was also observed after injection of 50 micrograms of histamine per kilogram into the external jugular vein in anesthetized (50 mg ketamine + 3 mg acepromazine per kg) and tracheostomized rabbits during the 1st wk of life. In 1-day-old animals, a short-lasting excitation was followed by apnea or a prolongation of expiratory phase. Peak amplitude of the diaphragmatic EMG (EMGdi) increased in all animals, but only in the youngest was the EMGdi increase paralleled by an increase in tidal volume. In vagotomized animals or animals pretreated with H1-blocker, histamine never affected timing parameters in animals greater than 1 day old. In the youngest animals, respiratory depression due to histamine was not abolished after vagotomy or promethazine. The results imply that inputs from the upper airways and the rapidly adapting pulmonary mechanoreceptors exert their effects on the pattern of breathing immediately after birth in rabbits. The importance of those inputs increases with maturation.     

Synchronization of respiratory frequency by somatic afferent stimulation.

In cats anesthetized with chloralose-urethan, vagotomized, paralyzed, and artifically ventilated, superficial radial (cutaneous) and hamstring (muscle) nerve afferents were stimulated while phrenic nerve electrical activity was recorded. The results obtained with both types of nerves were similar. Stimulation in mid and late expiration advanced the onset of the next inspiration, shortening its duration. Stimulation in early inspiration advanced, while that in late inspiration delayed, the onset of the next expiration. These effects were often accompanied by changes in phrenic motoneuron firing patterns (earlier recruitment, increased discharge frequency, increased slope of integrated phrenic neurogram). Repetitive somatic afferent stimulation produced sustained increases in respiratory frequency in all cats and in half of them entrainment of respiratory frequency to the frequency of stimulation occurred at ratios such as 4:3, 4:5, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, and 1:7. The lowest stimulus intensity required for evoking these phase shifts was between 5 and 10T (threshold of most excitable fibers) for muscle afferents and between 1 and 2T for cutaneous afferents. These results demonstrate the existence of a reflex mechanism capable of locking respiratory frequency to that of a periodic somatic afferent input. They also provide an experimental basis for the hypothesis that reflexes are resposible for the observed locking between step or pedal frequency and respiratory rate during exercise in man.     

Retinol enhances differentiation of the gastric parietal cell lineage in developing rabbits.

In the gastric glands, parietal cells are the targets for anti-ulcer drugs because they contain the proton pump or HK-ATPase responsible for acid secretion. Little is known about factors influencing developmental expression and activity of HK-ATPase. In this study, the parietal cell lineage was investigated in rabbits at post-natal days 0 (P0) to P60 by using morphological and biochemical methods. Immunohistochemical and ultrastructural studies show that the HK-ATPase-expressing cells that appear at P0 and P3 are pre-parietal cells. However, terminally differentiated, mature parietal cells make their appearance at P7. These data correlate with the activity of HK-ATPase, measured as K(+)-dependent hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl phosphate. Three-day-retinol treatment of P3-P30 rabbits induced an increase in the (i) production of parietal cells, (ii) intensity of the HK-ATPase immunostaining per cell, (iii) activity of HK-ATPase and (iv) amount of HK-ATPase protein measured by Western blotting. In conclusion, retinol upregulates the development of HK-ATPase in rabbits, perhaps due to precocious acceleration of the differentiation program of parietal cell lineage.