Lautridou Jacky, Buzzacott Peter, Belhomme Marc, Dugrenot Emmanuel, Lafère Pierre, Balestra Costantino, Guerrero François
1University of Western Brittany, IBSAM, Brest, FRANCE; 2School of Sports Science, Exercise and Health, University of Western Australia, Crawley, AUSTRALIA; and 3Environmental & Occupational Physiology Laboratory, (ISEK), Haute Ecole Bruxelles-Brabant (HE2B), Brussels, BELGIUM.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2017 Dec;49(12):2433-2438. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001385.
Decompression sickness (DCS) is a complex and poorly understood systemic disease caused by inadequate desaturation after a decrease of ambient pressure. Strong variability between individuals is observed for DCS occurrence. This raises questions concerning factors that may be involved in the interindividual variability of DCS occurrence. This study aimed to experimentally assess the existence of heritable factors involved in DCS occurrence by selectively breeding individuals resistant to DCS from a population stock of Wistar rats.
Fifty-two male and 52 female Wistar rats were submitted to a simulated air dive known to reliably induce about 63% DCS: compression was performed at 100 kPa·min up to 1000 kPa absolute pressure before a 45-min long stay. Decompression was performed at 100 kPa·min with three decompression stops: 5 min at 200 kPa, 5 min at 160 kPa, and 10 min at 130 kPa. Animals were observed for 1 h to detect DCS symptoms. Individuals without DCS were selected and bred to create a new generation, subsequently subjected to the same hyperbaric protocol. This procedure was repeated up to the third generation of rats.
As reported previously, this diving profile induced 67% of DCS, and 33% asymptomatic animals in the founding population. DCS/asymptomatic ratio was not initially different between sexes, although males were heavier than females. In three generations, the outcome of the dive significantly changed from 33% to 67% asymptomatic rats, for both sexes. Interestingly, survival in females increased sooner than in males.
This study offers evidence suggesting the inheritance of DCS resistance. Future research will focus on genetic and physiological comparisons between the initial strain and the new resistant population.
减压病（DCS）是一种复杂且尚未完全了解的全身性疾病，由环境压力降低后脱饱和不充分引起。在减压病的发生方面，个体之间存在很大差异。这引发了关于可能参与减压病发生个体差异的因素的问题。本研究旨在通过从Wistar大鼠种群中选择性培育对减压病有抗性的个体，来实验性地评估参与减压病发生的遗传因素的存在。
52只雄性和52只雌性Wistar大鼠接受了模拟空气潜水，已知该潜水能可靠地诱发约63%的减压病：在45分钟的停留之前，以100 kPa·min的速度压缩至1000 kPa绝对压力。以100 kPa·min的速度进行减压，有三个减压停留点：在200 kPa停留5分钟，在160 kPa停留5分钟，在130 kPa停留10分钟。观察动物1小时以检测减压病症状。选择没有患减压病的个体进行繁殖以产生新一代，随后使其接受相同的高压方案。这个过程重复进行直至第三代大鼠。
如先前报道，这种潜水方案在初始种群中诱发了67%的减压病和33%无症状的动物。尽管雄性比雌性重，但减压病/无症状的比例在性别之间最初并无差异。在三代中，潜水的结果在两性中都从33%无症状大鼠显著变为67%无症状大鼠。有趣的是，雌性的存活率比雄性更早提高。
本研究提供了表明减压病抗性可遗传的证据。未来的研究将集中于初始品系与新的抗性种群之间的遗传和生理比较。
