Forster HV, Smith CA. Contributions of central and peripheral chemoreceptors to the ventilatory response to CO2/H . J Appl Physiol 108: 989–994, 2010. First published January 14, 2010; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01059.2009.—The major objective of this review is to evaluate existing information and reach conclusions regarding whether there is interaction between PCO2/H stimulation of carotid (peri...

BACKGROUND Peripheral chemoreceptors residing predominantly in the carotid body monitor changes in arterial blood oxygen and are mechanistically linked to the cardiorespiratory control by the autonomic nervous system. Enhanced sympathetic activation is common in end-stage renal disease and kidney transplantation has been shown to improve cardiorespiratory reflex measures of autonomic function. ...

Second order neurons in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) process and integrate the afferent information from arterial baroreceptors with high fidelity and precise timing synaptic transmission. Since 2nd-order NTS neurons receiving baroreceptors inputs are relatively well characterized, their electrophysiological profile has been accepted as a general characteristic for all 2nd-order NTS neu...

Sepsis progresses to multiple organ dysfunction due to the uncontrolled release of inflammatory mediators, and a growing body of evidence shows that neural signals play a significant role in modulating the immune response. Thus, similar toall other physiological systems, the immune system is both connected to and regulated by the central nervous system. The efferent arc consists of the activati...

Hypoxia may sensitize the carotid chemoreceptors, resulting in a sustained elevation of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) that outlasts the hypoxic stimulus. To test this hypothesis, we determined the effect of carotid body inhibition on the sustained elevation of MSNA following isocapnic hypoxia in humans. Seven healthy subjects (5 male, 2 female) breathed 100% O(2) (hyperoxia) for 1 mi...

To investigate the effects of digitalis on chemoreflexes in humans, we measured muscle sympathetic nerve activity (microneurography), minute ventilation, oxygen saturation, end-tidal carbon dioxide, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, and central venous pressure during stimulation of peripheral chemoreceptors with hypoxia, during stimulation of central chemoreceptors with hypercapnia, and durin...

Circulating levels of leptin are elevated in individuals suffering from chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH). Systemic and central administration of leptin elicits increases in sympathetic nervous activity (SNA), arterial pressure (AP) and heart rate (HR), and attenuates the baroreceptor reflex, cardiovascular responses that are similar to those observed during CIH as a result of activation of ch...

Chemoreceptors are key components of the high-performance signal transduction system that controls bacterial chemotaxis. Chemoreceptors are typically localized in a cluster at the cell pole, where interactions among the receptors in the cluster are thought to contribute to the high sensitivity, wide dynamic range, and precise adaptation of the signaling system. Previous structural and genomic s...