Intrapulmonary CO2 receptors and control of breathing in ducks: effects of prolonged circulation time to carotid bodies and brain.

The role of intrapulmonary chemoreceptors in the breath-to-breath control of spontaneous breathing was studied in anesthetized ducks by stimulating these receptors with changes in mixed venous CO2 loads during prolonged circulation time to the carotid bodies and brain by vascular loops placed in both brachiocephalic arteries. Blood equilibrated with gas mixtures of high (85% CO2-15% O2) or low CO2 (air) was infused into the right ventricle at 100 ml . min-1, while simultaneously withdrawing blood from the entrance of the right atrium at the same rate. A variety of cardiopulmonary and blood gas variables were measured. Infusing blood of high PCO2 increased both respiratory frequency and tidal volume long before the altered blood could have reached the carotid bodies or brain. The increase in ventilation was not enough to prevent a rise in PaCO2. Infusing blood of low PCO2 decreased both respiratory frequency and tidal volume. Again, the changes in respiration occurred before the infused blood had reached the carotid bodies or the brain. Infusion of blood similar in PCO2 to mixed venous blood did not significantly alter ventilation or arterial blood gases. The rapidity of the ventilation response to a change in mixed venous CO2 load led us to conclude that the intrapulmonary chemoreceptors can detect changes in mixed venous CO2 loads and that they initiate a ventilatory change appropriate to minimize alterations in PaCO2. These receptors, thus, can control breathing on a breath-to-breath basis in birds.