Firing properties and hypercapnic responses of single phrenic motor axons in the rat

Inspiratory phase activity was recorded from 33 phrenic motoneuron (PM) axonal fibers in anesthetized, vagotomized, artificially ventilated adult rats. During control conditions (no inspired CO2 added), the population of PM fibers could be separated into early and late onset types based on the time of firing onset relative to the onset of whole phrenic nerve activity. Mean discharge frequencies of both types were not significantly different. Compared with late PM's, early PM's had more spikes per inspiration, fired for a longer period, and the last spike occurred later and during the postinspiratory period. Further, the mean minimal interspike interval was shorter for early PM's than for late PM's. Increasing inspired CO2 to 0.03 and 0.05 resulted in earlier firing onsets and a greater number of spikes per inspiration, particularly for late PM's. Increases in mean firing frequency occurred for both PM types. Mean minimal interspike intervals for both types of PM's showed progressive reductions as CO2 rose. For almost all of the firing properties examined in this study, responses of rat PM axons were similar to those previously reported for the cat.