Metabolic and circulatory responses of normoxic skeletal muscle to whole-body hypoxia

Whole-body hypoxia may increase peripheral O2 demand because it increases catecholamine calorigenesis, an effect attributable to beta 2-adrenoceptors. We tested these possibilities by pump-perfusing innervated hindlimbs in eight dogs with autologous blood kept normoxic by a membrane oxygenator while ventilating the animals for 40 min with 9% O2 in N2 (NOB group). Similar periods of normoxic ventilation preceded and followed the hypoxic period. A second group (n = 8, beta B) was pretreated with the specific beta 2 blocker ICI 118,551. Hindlimb O2 uptake was elevated by 25 min of hypoxia in NOB, whereas whole-body O2 uptake was reduced. Limb O2 uptake remained elevated in recovery, but all effects on limb O2 uptake were absent in beta B. Hindlimb resistance and perfusion pressure increased in hypoxia in both groups, and there was little evidence of local escape from reflex vasoconstriction. These results clearly indicated that global hypoxia increased O2 demand in muscle when the local O2 supply was not limited and that beta 2-receptors were necessary for this response. Autoregulatory escape of limb muscle blood flow from centrally mediated vasoconstriction during whole-body hypoxia was also shown to be practically nil, if normoxia was maintained in the limb.