Respiratory rhythm irregularity after carotid body denervation in rats

Figures

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  Fig. 1. Hypoxia-induced arousal responses in rats following bilateral ablation of the carotid bodies. Summary data illustrating changes in SES induced by hypoxia in the carotid body ablated and sham-operated animals (10 weeks after CB ablation, n = 8 per group).

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  Fig. 2. Resting breathing patterns after carotid body ablation. (A) Representative time-condensed and expanded traces (for the period indicated by the dashed box) illustrating resting breathing pattern in a conscious rat five weeks after bilateral carotid body ablation, showing sighs (marked by *) and randomly occurring apneas (marked by arrow heads). (B) Summary data showing 23 ± 3% decrease in the mean resting breathing rate (fR) in conscious rats five weeks after bilateral carotid body ablation when compared to the sham-operated rats. (C) Representative time-condensed and expanded traces illustrating resting breathing pattern in a conscious rat ten weeks after bilateral carotid body ablation. (D) Summary data showing no difference in the mean resting fR in conscious rats ten weeks after bilateral carotid body ablation compared to the sham-operated animals. Sighs (*) and random apneas (arrow heads) are indicated.

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  Fig. 3. Irregular breathing pattern in conditions of chronic carotid body ablation. (A) Poincaré plots of the respiratory cycle duration (TTOT) for nth cycle versus TTOT for the nth + 1 cycle in a sham-operated rat (top) and in a rat five weeks after carotid bodies ablation (bottom). Summary data showing that the coefficient of variation (CV) of TTOT was higher in carotid body ablated rats five (B) and ten (C) weeks after surgery when compared to sham-operated rats. (D) Summary data showing that the breathing Irregularity Score (IS) was higher in carotid body ablated rats vs. sham-operated animals five weeks after surgery. (E) Summary data showing that IS remained significantly higher ten weeks after bilateral ablation of the carotid bodies when compared to sham-operated rats.

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  Fig. 4. Sigh frequency and apnea index in conditions of chronic carotid body ablation. When compared to sham-operated rats, sigh frequencies were not different five (A) or ten (B) weeks after carotid body ablation. (C) Summary data showing that apnea index (random events per hour) was significantly higher in rats five weeks after carotid body ablation compared to sham-operated rats. (D) Summary data showing that apnea index remained higher in carotid body ablated rats ten weeks after ablation when compared to sham-operated rats.