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Published on: April 24, 2017
Development of chemoreceptor responses in infants
Gary Cohen1, Miriam Katz-Salamon
1Department of Woman and Child Health, Neonatal Unit, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Insights
Chemoreception, the sensing of oxygen and carbon dioxide, becomes critical for infant breathing rhythm after birth. Impaired chemoreceptor development can cause breathing dysfunction, especially during sleep.
Area of Science:
- Physiology
- Neonatal Medicine
- Respiratory Control
Background:
- Chemoreception is the capacity to sense and respond to changes in P(O2) and P(CO2) to maintain homeostasis.
- While not essential at birth, chemoreceptor drive becomes critical for infant breathing rhythm within weeks.
- Normal development of chemoreceptors is vital for preventing breathing dysfunction, particularly during sleep.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the role of chemoreception in infant breathing control.
- To review methods for studying chemoreception in newborns.
- To examine postnatal changes influencing infant breathing.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on chemoreception and infant breathing.
- Analysis of methods used to study chemoreception in newborn infants.
- Examination of postnatal development and stress responses impacting ventilation.
Main Results:
- Initial breathing at birth is neurogenically driven, with chemoreceptor input becoming crucial later.
- Chemoreceptor function influences the threshold, strength, and speed of ventilatory responses.
- Failure in chemoreceptor development is linked to infant breathing disorders.
Conclusions:
- Chemoreception plays a critical, evolving role in maintaining infant respiratory homeostasis.
- Understanding chemoreceptor function is key to diagnosing and managing infant breathing disorders.
- Further research into chemoreceptor development and dysfunction is warranted.
Abstract:
This paper is devoted to the field of chemoreception and its role in the control of breathing in infants. We use "chemoreception" to refer to the capacity to sense and process changes in P(O2) and P(CO2), and also to react to these changes by adjusting ventilation in order to maintain homeostasis. Functional chemoreceptors are not essential to commence or even to sustain breathing efforts immediately at or after birth; the intense brain activation, which occurs at birth, is sufficient. Over subsequent days to weeks, however, this "neurogenic" drive weakens and drive from the chemoreceptors becomes critical for generating and maintaining a normal breathing rhythm. Failure of the chemoreceptors to develop normally, consequently, becomes an important underlying cause of breathing dysfunction, particularly during sleep. The paper deals with the methods available to study chemoreception in newborn infants and provide an overview of the early postnatal changes and interactions, which influence breathing at rest and under stress. The latter may be described in terms of the threshold and strength as well as the delay/speed with which ventilation changes in response to chemical stimulation. We conclude with a survey of disorders associated with chemoreceptor deficits in infancy.
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