Inflammation is characteristic of most clinical disorders that challenge the neural control of breathing. Since inflammation modulates neuroplasticity, we studied the impact of inflammation caused by prolonged intermittent hypoxia on an important form of respiratory plasticity, acute intermittent hypoxia (three, 5 min hypoxic episodes, 5 min normoxic intervals) induced phrenic long-term facilit...

Objective To investigate the effects of miR-218 on expression of hypoxia-inducible factors 1α (HIF-1α), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and cell apoptosis in normal mice aortic endothelial cells under intermittent hypoxia (IH) condition. Methods Anti-miR-218 inhibitor, miR-negative control and miR-218 mimic were used to tranfect the cells in different groups under IH condition. Both...

This study examined whether time of day and repeated exposure to intermittent hypoxia have an impact on the hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR) and ventilatory long-term facilitation (vLTF). Thirteen participants with sleep apnea were exposed to twelve 4-min episodes of isocapnic hypoxia followed by a 30-min recovery period each day for 10 days. On days 1 (initial day) and 10 (final day) partici...

The cardiovascular and respiratory systems play key roles in O(2) homeostasis. Physiological responses to hypoxia involve changes in gene expression that are mediated by the transcriptional activator hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1. Analysis of mice heterozygous for a knockout allele at the locus encoding the O(2)-regulated HIF-1alpha or HIF-2alpha subunit has revealed that these proteins are ...

There are three major types of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) with respect to prevalence and health consequences, i.e. obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS), Cheyne-Stokes respiration and central sleep apnoea (CSR-CSA) in chronic heart failure, and obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS). In all three conditions, hypoxia appears to affect body functioning in different ways. Most of the mole...

We examined the impact of arousal state, sex, and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on the magnitude of progressive augmentation of the hypoxic ventilatory response and ventilatory long-term facilitation (vLTF). We also examined whether exposure to intermittent hypoxia during sleep has an impact on the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) in individuals with OSA. Ten men and seven women with OSA, along with ...