Carotid bifurcation sympathectomy and deafferentation: respiration during hypercapnia

The respiratory effects of hypercapnia were studied in six awake cats 1) after bilateral sympathectomy of the carotid bifurcations and 2) after bilateral section of the carotid sinus nerves. When cats breathed either 2 or 4% CO2 in air, neither denervation affected the absolute level of ventilation, the percent change in ventilation, or the range of breath-to-breath variability in ventilation (V). However, in all six cats tidal volume (VT) increased for some levels of breath V after sympathectomy of the carotid bifurcations during inhalation of 4% CO2 in air. Moreover, after the subsequent carotid deafferentation, increased VT during fractional concentration of inspired CO2 (FICO2) of 4% persisted in four of six cats. Thus increased VT after sympathectomy could not be attributed to increased carotid chemoreceptor afferent activity but may have been due to reduced baroreceptor activity. On the other hand, sympathectomy-induced differences in breath timing, present during inhalation of 2% CO2, were reversed to intact values after sinus nerve section. In contrast to 2% CO2, changes in respiratory timing in intact cats associated with 4% CO2 were not altered significantly by sympathectomy or deafferentation of the carotid bifurcations. The latter indicates that above a critical FICO2 central mechanisms, unrelated to the carotid bifurcation, dominated respiratory timing in the hypercapnic awake cats.