A carotid body-brainstem neural circuit mediates sighing in hypoxia.

ABSTRACT: Increased ventilation is a critical process that occurs when the body responds to a hypoxic environment. Sighs are long, deep breaths that prevent alveolar collapse, and their frequency is significantly increased by hypoxia. In this study, we first show that sighing is induced by hypoxia as a function of increased hypoxic severity and that hypoxia-induced sighing is capable of increasing the oxygen saturation in a mouse model. We next found that the gastrin-releasing peptide (Grp) expressing neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) are important in mediating hypoxia-induced sighing. Retrograde tracing from these Grp neurons reveals their direct afferent input from the petrosal ganglion neurons that innervate the carotid body, the major peripheral chemoreceptor that senses blood o

SUBMITTER: Yao Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10337290 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature