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The Study of Respiratory Chemoreflexes Using a Novel Dual-Perfused Rodent Preparation

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Isolated Central Nervous System Circuits

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 73))

Abstract

Artificially perfused brainstem preparations have several advantages over both in vivo and superfused en bloc preparations for studying respiratory circuits. They allow the analysis of neuronal function without confounding influences of anesthesia and major peripheral feedback loops (chemoreceptor, vagal, and hormonal) while maintaining the brainstem in an oxygenated state and preserving many of the salient features of the normal respiratory motor pattern. Here we have summarized the development, characterization, and utility of a novel “dual-perfused preparation”: a vagotomized, decerebrate, in situ juvenile rat brainstem preparation in which central and peripheral chemoreceptors are perfused separately with defined media containing precisely controlled gas concentrations. This preparation has been instrumental in recent studies of time-dependent effects of chemoreflexes in response to intermittent chemostimuli as well as in demonstrating a hypoadditive interaction between central and peripheral chemoreceptors in the absence of cortical and vagal afferents (1–3).

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from CIHR and AIHS (RJAW) and CIHR and MRU Internal Grants Fund (TAD). Development of the DPP was made possible by the generosity of Dr. Julian Paton who taught us the WHBP on which the DPP was based.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Trevor A. Day

  2. Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Richard J. A. Wilson

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  1. Trevor A. Day
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  2. Richard J. A. Wilson
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Correspondence to Trevor A. Day .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, Department of Physiology and Centre for, University of Alberta, N/A 232D, Edmonton, T6G 2S2, Alberta, Canada

    Klaus Ballanyi

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Day, T.A., Wilson, R.J.A. (2012). The Study of Respiratory Chemoreflexes Using a Novel Dual-Perfused Rodent Preparation. In: Ballanyi, K. (eds) Isolated Central Nervous System Circuits. Neuromethods, vol 73. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-020-5_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-020-5_13

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-62703-019-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-62703-020-5

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