Effect of chronic resistive loading on hypoxic ventilatory responsiveness.

Depression of ventilation mediated by endogenous opioids has been observed acutely after resistive airway loading. We evaluated the effects of chronically increased airway resistance on hypoxic ventilatory responsiveness shortly after load imposition and 6 wk later. A circumferential tracheal band was placed in 200-g rats, tripling tracheal resistance. Sham surgery was performed in controls. Ventilation and the ventilatory response to hypoxia were measured by using barometric plethysmography at 2 days and 6 wk postsurgery in unanesthetized rats during exposure to room air and to 12% O2-5% CO2-balance N2. Trials were performed with and without naloxone (1 mg/kg i.p.). Room air arterial blood gases demonstrated hypercapnia with normoxia in obstructed rats at 2 days and 6 wk postsurgery. During hypoxia, a 30-Torr fall in PO2 occurred with no change in PCO2. Hypoxic ventilatory responsiveness was suppressed in obstructed rats at 2 days postloading. Naloxone partially reversed this suppression. However, hypoxic responsiveness at 6 wk was not different from control levels. Naloxone had a small effect on ventilatory pattern at this time with no overall effect on hypoxic responsiveness. This was in contrast to previously demonstrated long-term suppression of CO2 sensitivity in this model, which was partially reversible by naloxone only during the immediate period after load imposition. Endogenous opioids apparently modulate ventilatory control acutely after load imposition. Their effect wanes with time despite persistence of depressed CO2 sensitivity.