Interference by Domperidone on Chemosensory and Ventilatory Responses to Dopamine

Abstract

The peripheral arterial chemoreceptors exert a tonic drive upon resting ventilation in normoxic eucapnic mammals as shown by the fall in tidal volume (VT) observed in response to breathing 100% O₂ for a few seconds (Dejours, 1963)). Similarly, the transient ventilatory depression induced by dopamine (DA) administered i.v. (Nishino and Lahiri, 1981: Zapata and Zuazo, 1980) can only be ascribed to an inhibition of this peripheral chemosensory drive, since DA does not cross the blood-brain barrier (Oldendorf, 1971). Otherwise, the intracisternal or intracerebroventricular administration of a DA agonist, apomorphine, initially depresses and later on increases respiratory frequency (fR) by acting upon bulbar respiratory neurons (Bolme, Fuxe, Hokfelt and Goldstein 1977: Hedner, Hedner, Jonason and Lundbergh 1982).