Participação de áreas do tronco encefálico na resposta respiratória ao CO2

Abstract

The periaqueductal gray (PAG), a midbrain structure, is directly related to the modulation of survival behaviors and has direct projections to several central nuclei that are involved in breathing control, including the A5 cell group, nucleus of the solitary tract, rostral ventrolateral medulla, raphe nuclei among others. It also receives afferents from areas involved in the control of body temperature such as dorsal medial hypothalamus. Although it is already known that the PAG elicits ventilatory responses when stimulated, the neural circuits involved in this response are not fully elucidated. Therefore, this study explored the involvement of dorsal and ventral PAG on cardiorespiratory and thermal responses to normocapnia, hypercapnia and hypoxia. Thus, ibotenic acid (IBO) or vehicle (PBS, Sham group) was injected into the dPAG (dorsomedial/dorsolateral) or vPAG (lateral/ventrolateral) of male Wistar rats. Pulmonary ventilation (VE), mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR) and body temperature (Tb) were measured in unanaesthetized rats during normocapnia normoxic, hypercapnic and hypoxic exposure (5, 15, 30 min, 7% CO2). The first set of experiments with hypercapnic challenge, IBO lesioning of the dPAG caused reduction of 31% of the respiratory response to CO2 (1094.3 ± 115 mL/Kg/min) compared with Sham (1589.5 ± 88.1 mL/Kg/min), whereas lesion of vPAG caused a decrease in 26% of hypercapnic hyperpnoea (1215.3 ± 108.6 mL/Kg/min) compared with Sham (1657.3 ± 173.9 mL/Kg/min). Basal VE, MAP, HR and Tb were not affected by dPAG or vPAG lesion. These results suggest that dPAG and vPAG exert an excitatory modulation of hypercapnic ventilatory response in rats but do not affect MAP, HR or Tb regulation in resting conditions or during hypercapnia. As to hypoxic challenge, lesions of 3.9 e 2.8% of dPAG and vPAG, respectivally, promoted by microinjection of 0.5 μL of IBO in dPAG and vPAG, did not change the cardioventilatory and thermal responses to hypoxia. The increase of the volume of injection of IBO to 1 μL caused 9.8% and 6.7% of dPAG and vPAG lesion, respectivally. Lesion of dPAG increased 67% the hypoxic ventilatory response (1730 ± 282.5 mL/Kg/min) compared to Shamp group (991.4 ± 194 mL/Kg/min), but lesion of vPAG did not change the cardiorespiratory and thermal responses to hypoxia. As observed with 0.5 μL of IBO, the increase of the size of dPAG and vPAG lesion did not affesct MAP, HR and Tb. In conclusion, dPAG neurons exert an inhibitory modulation of hypoxic respiratory. Additionally, the PAG does not appear to exert a tonic role on cardiovascular and thermal parameters during normoxia and hypoxic conditions.