Ventilatory response to hyperoxia in the chick embryo

In the avian embryo at term we measured the ventilatory response to hyperoxia, which lowers the chemoreceptor activity, to test the hypothesis that the peripheral chemoreceptors are tonically functional. Measurements of pulmonary ventilation (V-E) were conducted in chicken embryos during the external pipping phase, at 38 degreesC, during air and hyperoxia, and during hypercapnia in air or in hyperoxia. Hyperoxia (95% O-2) maintained for 30 min lowered V-E by 15-20%, largely because of a reduction in breathing frequency (f). The oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production of the embryo were not altered. The hyperoxic drop of V, was more marked in those embryos, which had higher values of normoxic V-E Hypercapnia, whether 2 or 5% CO2 increased V-E, almost exclusively because of the increase in tidal volume (V-T). The increase in V-T was less pronounced when hypercapnia was associated with hyperoxia, and f slightly decreased. Hence, in hyperoxia, the V-E response to CO2 was less than in air. The results are in support of the hypothesis that in the avian embryo, after the onset of breathing, the peripheral chemoreceptors exert a tonic facilitatory input on V-E. This differs from neonatal mammals, where the chemoreceptors have minimal or no activity at birth, presumably because the increased arterial oxygenation with the onset of air breathing is a much more sudden phenomenon in mammals than it is in birds. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.