Interaction of temperature with extra- and intrapulmonary chemoreceptor control of ventilatory movements in the awake chicken

Ventilatory responses to changes in temperature in mammals and other vertebrates

This article reviews the relationship between pulmonary ventilation (VE) and metabolic rate (oxygen consumption) during changes in ambient temperature. The main focus is on mammals, although for comparative purposes the VE responses of ectothermic vertebrates are also discussed. First, the effects of temperature on pulmonary mechanics, chemoreceptors, and airway receptors are summarized. Then we review the main VE responses to cold and warm stimuli and their interaction with exercise, hypoxia, or hypercapnia. In these cases, mammals attempt to maintain both oxygenation and body temperature, although conflicts can arise because of the respiratory heat loss associated with the increase in ventilation. Finally, we consider the VE responses of mammals when body temperature changes, as during torpor, fever, sleep, and hypothermia. In ectotherms, during changes in temperature, VE control becomes part of a general strategy to maintain constant relative alkalinity and ensure a constancy of pH-dependent protein functions (alphastat regulation). In mammals on the other hand, VE control is aimed to balance metabolic needs with homeothermy. Therefore, alphastat regulation in mammals seems to have a low priority, and it may be adopted only in exceptional cases.

Effect of bilateral vagotomy on arterial acid-base stability during panting in the pigeon

Bilateral, cervical vagotomy denervates, among other receptors, the known peripheral chemoreceptors in birds. To test the importance of afferent vagal input to cardiorespiratory control during thermal panting, we measured responses to an increase in body temperature (Tb) induced by ambient heating in 6 bilaterally, cervically vagotomized pigeons. These responses were compared with those we previously reported in intact pigeons (control animals). At thermoneutral conditions, respiratory frequency (fR) was lower after vagotomy compared to controls, and PaCO2 was higher. During increases in Tb in both control and vagotomized pigeons, fR, PaO2, pHa, heart rate and oxygen consumption increased, and PaCO2 decreased. However, fR rose less, PaCO2 decreased more, and pHa increased more in the vagotomized pigeons than in controls. All three were more variable than in controls. Heart rate and blood pressure were higher than controls; blood pressure was more variable. We conclude that bilateral, cervical vagotomy compromises the ability of pigeons to maintain stable respiratory and cardiovascular responses to hyperthermia.

Exercise hyperpnea in birds: evidence against a primary role for pCO2

Ventilatory responses of domestic fowl to graded intensities of treadmill exercise were compared when the birds breathed air, 3% CO2 in air or 4.2% CO2 in air. During exercise in air, increased minute ventilation resulted mainly from increased respiratory rate with little change in tidal volume. This pattern of ventilatory response was not altered when the birds respired CO2. In contrast, the pattern of ventilatory response to CO2, at given work loads, consisted of a primary increase in tidal volume with little change in respiratory rate. It is concluded that intrapulmonary pCO2 does not affect the ventilatory response to exercise.