Selected Contribution: Intermittent hypoxia induces phrenic long-term facilitation in carotid-denervated rats

2003 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 399-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan W. Bavis ◽  
Gordon S. Mitchell

Episodic hypoxia elicits a long-lasting augmentation of phrenic inspiratory activity known as long-term facilitation (LTF). We investigated the respective contributions of carotid chemoafferent neuron activation and hypoxia to the expression of LTF in urethane-anesthetized, vagotomized, paralyzed, and ventilated Sprague-Dawley rats. One hour after three 5-min isocapnic hypoxic episodes [arterial Po 2(PaO2 ) = 40 ± 5 Torr], integrated phrenic burst amplitude was greater than baseline in both carotid-denervated ( n = 8) and sham-operated ( n = 7) rats ( P < 0.05), indicating LTF. LTF was reduced in carotid-denervated rats relative to sham ( P < 0.05). In this and previous studies, rats were ventilated with hyperoxic gas mixtures (inspired oxygen fraction = 0.5) under baseline conditions. To determine whether episodic hyperoxia induces LTF, phrenic activity was recorded under normoxic (PaO2 = 90–100 Torr) conditions before and after three 5-min episodes of isocapnic hypoxia (PaO2 = 40 ± 5 Torr; n = 6) or hyperoxia (PaO2 > 470 Torr; n= 6). Phrenic burst amplitude was greater than baseline 1 h after episodic hypoxia ( P < 0.05), but episodic hyperoxia had no detectable effect. These data suggest that hypoxia per se initiates LTF independently from carotid chemoafferent neuron activation, perhaps through direct central nervous system effects.

2001 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 2001-2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. D. Fuller ◽  
A. G. Zabka ◽  
T. L. Baker ◽  
G. S. Mitchell

Episodic hypoxia evokes a sustained augmentation of respiratory motor output known as long-term facilitation (LTF). Phrenic LTF is prevented by pretreatment with the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptor antagonist ketanserin. We tested the hypothesis that 5-HT receptor activation is necessary for the induction but not maintenance of phrenic LTF. Peak integrated phrenic nerve activity (∫Phr) was monitored for 1 h after three 5-min episodes of isocapnic hypoxia (arterial Po 2 = 40 ± 2 Torr; 5-min hyperoxic intervals) in four groups of anesthetized, vagotomized, paralyzed, and ventilated Sprague-Dawley rats [ 1) control ( n = 11), 2) ketanserin pretreatment (2 mg/kg iv; n = 7), and ketanserin treatment 0 and 45 min after episodic hypoxia ( n = 7 each)]. Ketanserin transiently decreased ∫Phr, but it returned to baseline levels within 10 min. One hour after episodic hypoxia, ∫Phr was significantly elevated from baseline in control and in the 0- and 45-min posthypoxia ketanserin groups. Conversely, ketanserin pretreatment abolished phrenic LTF. We conclude that 5-HT receptor activation is necessary to initiate (during hypoxia) but not maintain (following hypoxia) phrenic LTF.


2002 ◽  
Vol 93 (6) ◽  
pp. 2155-2161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle McGuire ◽  
Yi Zhang ◽  
David P. White ◽  
Liming Ling

Episodic hypoxia induces a persistent augmentation of respiratory activity, termed long-term facilitation (LTF). Phrenic LTF saturates in anesthetized animals such that additional episodes of stimulation cause no further increase in LTF magnitude. The present study tested the hypothesis that 1) ventilatory LTF also saturates in awake rats and 2) more severe hypoxia and hypoxic episodes increase the effectiveness of eliciting ventilatory LTF. Minute ventilation was measured in awake, male Sprague-Dawley rats by plethysmography. LTF was elicited by five episodes of 10% O2 poikilocapnic hypoxia (magnitude: 17.3 ± 2.8% above baseline, between 15 and 45 min posthypoxia, duration: 45 min) but not 12 or 8% O2. LTF was also elicited by 10, 20, and 72 episodes of 12% O2(19.1 ± 2.2, 18.9 ± 1.8, and 19.8 ± 1.6%; 45, 60, and 75 min, respectively) but not by three or five episodes. These results show that there is a certain range of hypoxia that induces ventilatory LTF and that additional hypoxic episodes may increase the duration but not the magnitude of this response.


2008 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. 942-950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle McGuire ◽  
Chun Liu ◽  
Ying Cao ◽  
Liming Ling

N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonism in the phrenic motonucleus area eliminates phrenic long-term facilitation (pLTF; a persistent augmentation of phrenic nerve activity after episodic hypoxia) in anesthetized rats. However, whether NMDA antagonism can eliminate ventilatory LTF (vLTF) in awake rats is unclear. The role of non-NMDA receptors in LTF is also unknown. Serotonin receptor antagonism before, but not after, episodic hypoxia eliminates pLTF, suggesting that serotonin receptors are required for induction, but not maintenance, of pLTF. However, because NMDA and non-NMDA ionotropic glutamate receptors are directly involved in mediating the inspiratory drive to phrenic, hypoglossal, and intercostal motoneurons, we hypothesized that these receptors are required for both formation and maintenance of vLTF. vLTF, induced by five episodes of 5-min poikilocapnic hypoxia (10% O2) with 5-min normoxia intervals, was measured with plethysmography in conscious adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Either (±)-2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (APV; NMDA antagonist, 1.5 mg/kg) or 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX; non-NMDA antagonist, 10 mg/kg) was systemically (ip) injected ∼30 min before hypoxia. APV was also injected immediately after or 20 min after episodic hypoxia in additional groups. As control, vehicle was similarly injected in each rat 1–2 days before. Regardless of being injected before or after episodic hypoxia, vehicle did not alter vLTF (∼23%), whereas APV eliminated vLTF while having little effect on baseline ventilation or hypoxic ventilatory response. In contrast, CNQX enhanced vLTF (∼34%) while decreasing baseline ventilation. Collectively, these results suggest that activation of NMDA but not non-NMDA receptors is necessary for formation and maintenance of vLTF in awake rats.


2010 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susmita Chowdhuri ◽  
Irina Shanidze ◽  
Lisa Pierchala ◽  
Daniel Belen ◽  
Jason H. Mateika ◽  
...  

We hypothesized that episodic hypoxia (EH) leads to alterations in chemoreflex characteristics that might promote the development of central apnea in sleeping humans. We used nasal noninvasive positive pressure mechanical ventilation to induce hypocapnic central apnea in 11 healthy participants during stable nonrapid eye movement sleep before and after an exposure to EH, which consisted of fifteen 1-min episodes of isocapnic hypoxia (mean O2 saturation/episode: 87.0 ± 0.5%). The apneic threshold (AT) was defined as the absolute measured end-tidal Pco2 (PetCO2) demarcating the central apnea. The difference between the AT and baseline PetCO2 measured immediately before the onset of mechanical ventilation was defined as the CO2 reserve. The change in minute ventilation (V̇I) for a change in PetCO2 (ΔV̇I/ ΔPetCO2) was defined as the hypocapnic ventilatory response. We studied the eupneic PetCO2, AT PetCO2, CO2 reserve, and hypocapnic ventilatory response before and after the exposure to EH. We also measured the hypoxic ventilatory response, defined as the change in V̇I for a corresponding change in arterial O2 saturation (ΔV̇I/ΔSaO2) during the EH trials. V̇I increased from 6.2 ± 0.4 l/min during the pre-EH control to 7.9 ± 0.5 l/min during EH and remained elevated at 6.7 ± 0.4 l/min the during post-EH recovery period ( P < 0.05), indicative of long-term facilitation. The AT was unchanged after EH, but the CO2 reserve declined significantly from −3.1 ± 0.5 mmHg pre-EH to −2.3 ± 0.4 mmHg post-EH ( P < 0.001). In the post-EH recovery period, ΔV̇I/ΔPetCO2 was higher compared with the baseline (3.3 ± 0.6 vs. 1.8 ± 0.3 l·min−1·mmHg−1, P < 0.001), indicative of an increased hypocapnic ventilatory response. However, there was no significant change in the hypoxic ventilatory response (ΔV̇I/ΔSaO2) during the EH period itself. In conclusion, despite the presence of ventilatory long-term facilitation, the increase in the hypocapnic ventilatory response after the exposure to EH induced a significant decrease in the CO2 reserve. This form of respiratory plasticity may destabilize breathing and promote central apneas.


Author(s):  
Prajwal Pradeep Thakre ◽  
Michael D. Sunshine ◽  
David D. Fuller

Repeated short episodes of hypoxia produces a sustained increase in phrenic nerve output lasting well beyond AIH exposure (i.e., phrenic long term facilitation, pLTF). Pretreatment with ampakines, drugs which allosterically modulate AMPA receptors, enables a single brief episode of hypoxia to produce pLTF, lasting up to 90 min after hypoxia. Here we tested the hypothesis that ampakine pretreatment would enhance the magnitude of pLTF evoked by repeated bouts of hypoxia. Phrenic nerve output was recorded in urethane-anesthetized, mechanically ventilated and vagotomized adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Initial experiments demonstrated that ampakine CX717 (15 mg/kg, intravenous) caused an acute increase in phrenic nerve inspiratory burst amplitude reaching 70±48% baseline (BL) after 2 min (P=0.01. This increased bursting was not sustained (2±32%BL at 60 min, P=0.9). When CX717 was delivered 2 min prior to a single episode of isocapnic hypoxia (5-min, PaO2 = 44±9 mmHg) facilitation of phrenic nerve burst amplitude occurred (96±62%BL at 60 min, P<0.001). However, when CX717 was given 2 min prior to three, 5-min hypoxic episodes (PaO2 = 45±6 mmHg) pLTF was attenuated and did not reach statistical significance (24±29%BL, P=0.08). In the absence of CX717 pretreatment, pLTF was observed after three (74±33%BL at 60 min, P<0.001) but not one episode of hypoxia (1±8%BL at 60 min, P=0.9). We conclude that pLTF is not enhanced when ampakine pretreatment is followed by repeated bouts of hypoxia. Rather, the combination of ampakine and a single hypoxic episode appears to be ideal for producing sustained increase in phrenic motor output.


2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. D. FULLER ◽  
T. L. BAKER ◽  
M. BEHAN ◽  
G. S. MITCHELL

Long-term facilitation (LTF) is a prolonged, serotonin-dependent augmentation of respiratory motor output following episodic hypoxia. Previous observations lead us to hypothesize that LTF is subject to genetic influences and, as a result, differs between Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats from two vendors, Harlan (H) and Charles River Laboratories/Sasco (CRL/S). Using a blinded experimental design, we recorded integrated phrenic (∫Phr) and hypoglossal neurograms in anesthetized, vagotomized, paralyzed, and ventilated rats. At 60 min following three 5-min hypoxic episodes (PaO2 = 40 ± 1 Torr; 5-min hyperoxic intervals), ∫Phr was elevated from baseline in both SD substrains (i.e., LTF; P < 0.05). Conversely, hypoglossal LTF was present in CRL/S but not H rats ( P < 0.05 between substrains). Serotonin immunoreactivity within the hypoglossal nucleus was not different between H and CRL/S rats. We conclude that the expression of hypoglossal LTF differs between SD rat substrains, indicating a difference in their genetic predisposition to neural plasticity.


2016 ◽  
pp. 133-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. STIPICA ◽  
I. PAVLINAC DODIG ◽  
R. PECOTIC ◽  
Z. DOGAS ◽  
Z. VALIC ◽  
...  

This study was undertaken to determine pattern sensitivity of phrenic nerve plasticity in respect to different respiratory challenges. We compared long-term effects of intermittent and continuous hypercapnic and hypoxic stimuli, and combined intermittent hypercapnia and hypoxia on phrenic nerve plasticity. Adult, male, urethane-anesthetized, vagotomized, paralyzed, mechanically ventilated Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to: acute intermittent hypercapnia (AIHc or AIHcO2), acute intermittent hypoxia (AIH), combined intermittent hypercapnia and hypoxia (AIHcH), continuous hypercapnia (CHc), or continuous hypoxia (CH). Peak phrenic nerve activity (pPNA) and burst frequency were analyzed during baseline (T0), hypercapnia or hypoxia exposures, at 15, 30, and 60 min (T60) after the end of the stimulus. Exposure to acute intermittent hypercapnia elicited decrease of phrenic nerve frequency from 44.25±4.06 at T0 to 35.29±5.21 at T60, (P=0.038, AIHc) and from 45.5±2.62 to 37.17±3.68 breaths/min (P=0.049, AIHcO2), i.e. frequency phrenic long term depression was induced. Exposure to AIH elicited increase of pPNA at T60 by 141.0±28.2 % compared to baseline (P=0.015), i.e. phrenic long-term facilitation was induced. Exposure to AIHcH, CHc, or CH protocols failed to induce long-term plasticity of the phrenic nerve. Thus, we conclude that intermittency of the hypercapnic or hypoxic stimuli is needed to evoke phrenic nerve plasticity.


2007 ◽  
Vol 292 (4) ◽  
pp. H1967-H1977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. C. Tzeng ◽  
P. D. Larsen ◽  
D. C. Galletly

Cardioventilatory coupling (CVC), a temporal alignment between the heartbeat and inspiratory activity, is a major determinant of breath-to-breath variation in observed respiratory rate ( fo). The cardiac-trigger hypothesis attributes this to adjustments of respiratory timing by baroreceptor afferent impulses to the central respiratory pattern generator. A mathematical model of this hypothesis indicates that apparent CVC in graphical plots of ECG R wave vs. inspiratory time is dependent on the heart rate (HR), the rate of the intrinsic respiratory oscillator ( fi), and the strength of the hypothetical cardiovascular afferent impulse. Failure to account for HR and fi may explain the inconsistent results from previous attempts to identify the neural pathways involved in CVC. Cognizant of these interactions, we factored in the HR-to- fi ratio in our examination of the role of the vagus nerve and arterial baroreceptors in CVC by cardiac pacing 29 anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats and incrementally changing the HR. With the assumption of a relatively constant fi, CVC could be examined across a range of HR-to- fo ratios before and after vagotomy, sinoaortic denervation, and vagotomy + sinoaortic denervation. We confirmed the relation between CVC, HR-to- fo ratio, and breath-to-breath respiratory period variability and demonstrated the loss of these relations after baroreceptor elimination. Sham experiments ( n = 8) showed that these changes were not due to surgical stress. Our data support the notion that inspiratory timing can be influenced by cardiac afferent activity. We conclude that the putative cardiovascular input arises from the arterial baroreceptors and that the vagus nerve is not critical for CVC.


2007 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 911-916 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Rowley ◽  
Ihab Deebajah ◽  
Swapna Parikh ◽  
Ali Najar ◽  
Rajib Saha ◽  
...  

We have previously shown that in subjects with obstructive sleep apnea, repetitive hypoxia is associated with long-term facilitation as manifested by decreased upper airway resistance (Rua). Our objective was to study the influence of long-term facilitation on upper airway collapsibility as measured by the critical closing pressure (Pcrit) model and to determine whether changes in Rua correlated with changes in collapsibility. We studied 13 subjects (10 men, 3 women) with a mean apnea-hypopnea index of 43.9 ± 24.0 events/h. In the first protocol with 11 subjects, we measured collapsibility using a Pcrit protocol before and after episodic hypoxia. Brief (3 min) isocapnic hypoxia (inspired O2 fraction = 8%) followed by 5 min of room air was induced 10 times. A sham study without hypoxia was performed on eight subjects. Ventilatory parameters, Rua, and Pcrit before and after episodic hypoxia were measured. At 20 min of recovery, there was no change in minute ventilation but there was a significant decrease in Rua compared with the control period (control, 8.6 ± 4.8 cmH2O·l−1·s vs. recovery, 5.9 ± 3.8 cmH2O·l−1·s; P < 0.05). However, there was no change in Pcrit between the control (2.3 ± 1.9 cmH2O) and recovery (2.7 ± 3.2 cmH2O) periods. No changes in Rua or Pcrit were observed in the sham protocol. We conclude that long-term facilitation of upper airway dilators is not associated with changes in upper airway collapsibility in subjects with obstructive sleep apnea. These results corroborate previous evidence that changes in upper airway resistance and caliber can be dissociated from changes in upper airway collapsibility.


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