During ozone (O3) exposure, adult rats decrease their minute ventilation (V˙e). To determine whether such changes are also observed in immature animals, Sprague-Dawley rats, aged 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 wk, were exposed to O3(2 ppm) in nose-only-exposure plethysmographs. BaselineV˙e normalized for body weight decreased with age from 2.1 ± 0.1 ml ⋅ min−1⋅ g−1in 2-wk-old rats to 0.72 ± 0.03 ml ⋅ min−1⋅ g−1in 12-wk-old rats, consistent with the higher metabolic rates of younger animals. In adult (8- and 12-wk-old) rats, O3caused 40–50% decreases in V˙e that occurred primarily as the result of a decrease in tidal volume. In 6-wk-old rats, O3-induced changes inV˙e were significantly less, and in 2- and 4-wk-old rats, no significant changes inV˙e were observed during O3exposure. The increased baseline V˙e and the smaller decrements in V˙e induced by O3in the immature rats imply that their delivered dose of O3is much higher than in adult rats. To determine whether these differences in O3dose influence the extent of injury, we measured bronchoalveolar lavage protein concentrations. The magnitude of the changes in bronchoalveolar lavage induced by O3was significantly greater in 2- than in 8-wk-old rats (267 ± 47 vs. 165 ± 22%, respectively, P < 0.05). O3exposure also caused a significant increase in PGE2in 2-wk-old but not in adult rats. The results indicate that the ventilatory response to O3is absent in 2-wk-old rats and that lack of this response, in conjunction with a greater specific ventilation, leads to greater lung injury.
The thyrotropin‐releasing hormone analog Taltirelin augments the hypercapnic ventilatory response in CO
2
‐insensitive Brown Norway but not Sprague Dawley rats (1092.6)