Carbon dioxide exchange across the walls of arterioles: implication for the location of the medullary chemoreceptors.

The location of the medullary chemoreceptors is not conclusively established. The original experiments, which were believed to suggest a shallow surface location in the ventrolateral medulla, have been questioned because substances, particularly CO2, applied on the surface of the medulla could diffuse into small arterioles. Because the whole tissue blood flow is supplied by surface arterioles, they could transport substances from the surface into the tissue to the respiratory centers. We studied simple transport equations describing movement of CO2 in arterioles bathed by rapidly flowing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and arterioles in tissue perfused by capillaries. Substantial exchange of CO2 could occur across the arteriole wall for all expected sizes of vessels when the partial pressure of CO2 at the outside wall was determined by CSF. When an arteriole is surrounded by tissue, only vessels with inside diameters (ID) less than or equal to 50 micron will exchange substantial amounts of CO2 but the smallest arterioles may be nearly in equilibrium with the tissue. The CO2 gradient in tissue around the arteriole will extend approximately 1 mm. Our simple theoretical description of CO2 transport in arterioles predicts substantial exchange in precapillary vessels. CO2 picked up by the smallest surface arterioles when the medulla is perfused at a high rate with CSF will not stay in the blood past the putative depth of the chemoreceptors. In arterioles greater than 30 micron, however, the CO2 could be carried to the respiratory centers.