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Department of Physiology, The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, Arizona 85721
Received 5 June 1996; accepted in final form 5 August 1996.
Mateika, J. H., E. Essif, and R. F. Fregosi. Effect of
hypoxia on abdominal motor unit activities in spontaneously breathing
cats. J. Appl. Physiol. 81(6):
2428-2435, 1996.
These experiments were designed to examine the
behavior of external oblique motor units in spontaneously breathing
cats during hypoxia and to estimate the contribution of recruitment and
rate coding to changes in the integrated external oblique
electromyogram (iEMG). Motor unit activities in the external oblique
muscle were identified while the cats expired against a positive
end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) of 1-2.5
cmH2O. After localization of unit
activity, PEEP was removed, and recordings were made continuously for
3-4 min during hyperoxia, normoxia, and hypoxia. A total of 35 single motor unit activities were recorded from 10 cats. At each level of fractional concentration of end-tidal
O2, the motor unit activity was
characterized by an abrupt increase in mean discharge frequency, at
~30% of expiratory time, which then continued to increase gradually or remained constant before declining abruptly at the end of
expiration. The transition from hyperoxia to normoxia and hypoxia was
accompanied by an increase in the number of active motor units (16 of
35, 20 of 35, and 29 of 35, respectively) and by an increase in the mean discharge frequency of those units active during hyperoxia. The
changes in motor unit activity recorded during hypoxia were accompanied
by a significant increase in the average peak amplitude of the
abdominal iEMG. Linear regression analysis revealed that motor unit
rate coding was responsible for close to 60% of the increase in peak
iEMG amplitude. The changes in abdominal motor unit activity and the
external oblique iEMG that occurred during hypoxia were abolished if
the arterial PCO2 was allowed to
fall. We conclude that external oblique motor units are activated during the latter two-thirds of expiration and that rate coding and
recruitment contribute almost equally to the increase in expiratory muscle activity that occurs with hypoxia. In addition, the excitation of abdominal motor units during hypoxia is critically dependent on
changes in CO2 and/or
tidal volume.
electrophysiology; external oblique; rate coding; recruitment
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