Effects of altitude acclimatization on rat myoglobin; changes in myoglobin content of skeletal and cardiac muscle.
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We tested the hypothesis that ovarian steroids stimulate breathing through a dopaminergic mechanism in the carotid bodies. In ovariectomized female rats raised at sea level, domperidone, a peripheral D2-receptor antagonist, increased ventilation in normoxia (minute ventilation = +55%) and acute hypoxia (+32%). This effect disappeared after 10 daily injections of ovarian steroids (progesterone + estradiol). At high altitude (3,600 m, Bolivian Institute for High-Altitude Biology-IBBA, La Paz, Bolivia), neutered females had higher carotid body tyrosine hydroxylase activity (the rate-limiting enzyme for catecholamine synthesis: +129%) and dopamine utilization (+150%), lower minute ventilation (-30%) and hypoxic ventilatory response (-57%), and higher hematocrit (+18%) and Hb concentration (+21%) than intact female rats. Consistent signs of arterial pulmonary hypertension (right ventricular hypertrophy) also appeared in ovariectomized females. None of these parameters was affected by gonadectomy in males. Our results show that ovarian steroids stimulate breathing by lowering a peripheral dopaminergic inhibitory drive. This process may partially explain the deacclimatization of postmenopausal women at high altitude.
During the past several decades, many risk factors for cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease have been identified. More recently, it has been appreciated that inadequate nutrition and/or other intrauterine factors during fetal development may play an important role in the genesis of these conditions. An additional stress factor that may "program" the fetus for disease later in life is chronic hypoxia. In studies originally designed to examine the function of developing cerebral arterial function in response to long-term hypoxia (LTH), it has become clear that many cellular and subcellular changes may have important implications for later life. Here we review some of the significant alterations in fetal cerebral artery structure and function induced by high-altitude (3,820 m, 12,470 ft) LTH ( approximately 110 days). LTH is associated with augmentation or upregulation of presynaptic functions, including responses to perivascular (i.e., sympathetic) nerve stimulation, and structural maturational changes. In contrast, many postsynaptic functions related to the Ca(2+)-dependent contractile pathway tend to be downregulated, whereas elements of the Ca(2+)-independent contraction pathway are upregulated. The results emphasize the role of high-altitude LTH in modulating many aspects of electromechanical and pharmacomechanical coupling in the developing cerebral vasculature. A complicating factor is that the regulation of cerebrovascular tone by Ca(2+)-dependent and Ca(2+)-independent pathways changes significantly as a function of maturational age. In addition to highlighting independent regulation of various elements of the signal transduction cascade, the studies demonstrate the potential for LTH to program the fetus for cerebrovascular and other disease as an adult.
Penguins are able to maintain a high and constant body temperature despite a thermally constraining environment. Evidence for progressive adaptation to cold and marine life was sought by comparing body and peripheral skin temperatures, metabolic rate, and thermal insulation in juvenile and adult Gentoo penguins exposed to various ambient temperatures in air (from -30 to +30 degrees C) and water (3-35 degrees C). Juvenile penguins in air showed metabolic and insulative capacities comparable with those displayed by adults. Both had a lower critical temperature (LCT) close to 0 degree C. In both adults and juveniles, the intercept of the metabolic curve with the abscissa at zero metabolic rate was far below body temperature. This was accompanied by a decrease in thermal insulation below LCT, allowing the preservation of a threshold temperature in the shell. However, this shell temperature maintenance was progressively abandoned in immersed penguins as adaptation to marine life developed, probably because of its prohibitive energy cost in water. Thus adaptation to cold air and to cold water does not rely on the same kind of reactions. Both of these strategies fail to follow the classical sequence linking metabolic and insulative reactions in the cold.
This investigation examined the relationship between alterations in plasma norepinephrine associated with 21 days of high-altitude exposure and muscle sympathetic activity both at rest and during exercise. Healthy sea level residents, divided into a control group (n = 5) receiving a placebo or a drug group (n = 6) receiving 240 mg/day of propranolol, were studied while at sea level, upon arrival (acute), and after 21 days of residence (chronic) at 4,300 m. Arterial norepinephrine levels and net leg uptake and release of norepinephrine were determine both at rest and during 45 min of submaximal exercise via samples collected from femoral arterial and venous catheters. Arterial norepinephrine levels increased significantly after chronic altitude exposure both at rest (84%) and during exercise (174%) compared with sea level and acute values. A net uptake of norepinephrine was found in resting legs at sea level (0.28 +/- 0.05 nmol/min) and with acute exposure (0.07 +/- 0.06 nmol/min); however, a significant switch to net leg norepinephrine release was observed with chronic altitude exposure (0.51 +/- 0.11 nmol/min). With exercise, a net release of norepinephrine by the leg occurred across all conditions with chronic exposure, again eliciting the greatest values (5.3 +/- 0.6, 8.0 +/- 1.7, and 14.4 +/- 3.1 nmol/min for sea level, acute, and chronic exposure, respectively). It was concluded that muscle sympathetic activity is significantly elevated both at rest and during submaximal exercise as a result of chronic high-altitude exposure, and muscle is a major contributor to the increase in plasma norepinephrine levels associated with prolonged altitude exposure. The presence of dense beta-blockade did not alter this adaptation to altitude.
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