Effect of hypoxia on respiratory activity in the foetus

1. Breathing movements stop soon after the induction of hypoxia in foetal animals, a response attributed to the active inhibition of the respiratory centres. Separate studies using punctate lesions have identified lateral pontine and thalamic sites in foetal sheep from which respiratory inhibition may arise, but whether either of these loci are actually oxygen sensitive or whether they receive input from other regions responsive to hypoxia, has not been established. 2. FOS immunocytochemistry was used to identify neuronal pools activated by hypoxia in the brain of late-gestation foetal and newborn sheep. FOS-positive cells were found in the pons in regions corresponding to the medial parabrachial and Kolliker-Fuse nuclei and were shown to be catecholaminergic. Neurons in this pontine region were also activated by the piperizine drug almitrine, which, like hypoxia, inhibits respiratory output in the foetus but is a respiratory stimulant in the newborn and adult. Because these pontine neurons do not express FOS protein after challenge with hypoxia or almitrine in the newborn lamb, we argue that they are crucial to the hypoxic inhibition of respiratory activity in foetal life. 3. The role of the placenta in determining these foetal responses and how this may change at birth is discussed.