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1 University Laboratory of Physiology, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PT, United Kingdom; 2 Ecole National de Ski et d'Alpinisme, 74401 Chamonix cedex; and 3 Association pour la Recherche en Physiologie de l'Environnement, Laboratoire Réponses Cellulaires et Fonctionelles à l'Hypoxie, Université Paris XIII, 93017 Bobigny cedex, France
After a period of ventilatory
acclimatization to high altitude (VAH), a degree of hyperventilation
persists after relief of the hypoxic stimulus. This is likely, in part,
to reflect the altered acid-base status, but it may also arise, in
part, from the development during VAH of a component of carotid body
(CB) activity that cannot be entirely suppressed by hyperoxia. To test this hypothesis, eight volunteers undergoing a simulated ascent of
Mount Everest in a hypobaric chamber were acutely exposed to 30 min of
hyperoxia at various stages of acclimatization. For the second 10 min
of this exposure, the subjects were given an infusion of the CB
inhibitor, dopamine (3 µg · kg
1 · min
1). Although there was both a significant rise in
ventilation (P < 0.001) and a fall in end-tidal
PCO2 (P < 0.001) with VAH,
there was no progressive effect of dopamine infusion on these variables with VAH. These results do not support a role for CB in generating the
persistent hyperventilation that remains in hyperoxia after VAH.
hypobaric hypoxia; dopamine; carotid body; human
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