Cardiovascular responses to hypoxia in the spontaneously breathing cat: reflexes originating from carotid and aortic bodies.

The heart rate (fH) and systemic arterial pressure (Pa) responses to transient anoxemic and cytotoxic hypoxia were studied in 18 pentobarbitone-anesthetized, spontaneously breathing cats, by applying N2 tests and i.v. injections of NaCN. Hyperventilation was accompanied by short-latency increases in Pa and fH; they persisted after bilateral vagotomy, sparing the aortic nerves. Acute section of carotid or aortic nerves in different sequences reduced both fH and Pa responses, the contribution of both pairs of nerves being similar. The recording of carotid chemosensory discharges showed transient stimulus-dependent increases in their frequency, to which the ensuing fH and Pa rises were correlated. After sectioning the four buffer nerves, hypoxia provoked long-lasting hypotension and bradycardia. Tachycardia was also observed in response to hypoxia in 4 out of 6 chloralose-anesthetized spontaneously breathing cats, the other two presenting bradycardia. The direction of these cyanide-induced changes in fH was not modified by bilateral vagotomy. It is concluded that tachycardia and hypertension in response to hypoxia are not vagally-mediated consequences of hyperventilation.