Heme oxygenase is necessary for the excitatory response of cultured neonatal rat rostral ventrolateral medulla neurons to hypoxia by D'Agostino D, Mazza E, and Neubauer JA.

Heme Oxygenase Is Necessary for the Excitatory Response of Cultured Neonatal Rat Rostral Ventrolateral Medulla Neurons to Hypoxia

Heme oxygenase has been linked to the oxygen-sensing function of the carotid body, pulmonary vasculature, cerebral vasculature and airway smooth muscle. We have shown previously that the cardiorespiratory regions of the rostral ventrolateral medulla are excited by local hypoxia and that heme oxygenase-2 (HO-2) is expressed in the hypoxia chemosensitive regions of the rostral ventrolateral medul...

Hypoxic chemosensitivity of the cardiorespiratory regions of the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM)

Hypoxic excitation in neurons cultured from the rostral ventrolateral medulla of the neonatal rat.

Neurons within cardiorespiratory regions of the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) have been shown to be excited by local hypoxia. To determine the electrophysiological properties of these excitatory responses to hypoxia, we developed a primary dissociated cell culture system to examine the intrinsic response of RVLM neurons to hypoxia. Neonatal rat neurons plated on medullary astrocyte monol...

GABAergic receptors in rostral ventrolateral medulla mediates the cardiovascular responses to activation of bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in the female rat

The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) is known to contain estrogen (E)- concentrating neurons. In addition, injections of E into BST have been reported to potentiate the sympathoinhibitory arterial pressure (AP) and heart rate (HR) responses elicited by glutamate (Glu) stimulation. In this study, the effect of GABA-A antagonist receptors, bicuculline methiodide (BMI), in the rostral ven...

Expression of heme oxygenase in the oxygen-sensing regions of the rostral ventrolateral medulla.

Recently, unique regions in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) have been found to be oxygen sensitive. However, the mechanism of sensing oxygen in these RVLM regions is unknown. Because heme oxygenase (HO) has been shown to be involved in the hypoxic responses of the carotid body and pulmonary artery, the aim of this study was to determine whether HO is present in the RVLM and whether exp...