I. Pulmonary-CO2 ventilatory reflex in dogs: effective range of CO2 and results of vagal cooling.

Bartoli et al. (1974) found in dogs with constant PaCO2 that an increase in PCO2 in the vascularly isolated lungs increased ventilatory drive by a vagal reflex. We have examined the range of lung PCO2 over which the reflex operates. In anaesthetized dogs we ventilated the lungs separately with O2, maintaining gas exchange with the right lung. When we occluded the left pulmonary artery, left lung PCO2 fell to 2--4 mm Hg, and phrenic nerve firing decreased significantly. Phrenic activity increased again when left lung PCO2 was raised in steps to 19, 32 and finally to 50 mm Hg. PaCO2 was unchanged. Phrenic responses were abolished by cutting the left vagus nerve or by cooling it to 7--8 degrees C. The largest increase in phrenic activity occurred when left lung PCO2 was increased from 2 to 19 mm Hg, and the smallest when PCO2 was raised from 32 to 50 mm Hg. Hence the significance of the pulmonary-CO2 ventilatory reflex may lie in depression of ventilatory drive when pulmonary CO2 falls below normal, rather than in stimulation of breathing when pulmonary CO2 increases above normal.