Hypoxia-induced changes in shivering and body temperature

Experiments were carried out on conscious cats to evaluate the general characteristics and modes of action of hypoxia on thermoregulation during cold stress. Intact and carotid-denervated (CD) conscious cats were exposed to ambient hypoxia (low inspired O2 fraction) or CO hypoxia in prevailing laboratory (23-25 degrees C) or cold (5-8 degrees C) environments. In the cold, both groups promptly decreased shivering and body temperature when exposed to either type of hypoxia. Small increases in CO2 concentration reinstituted shivering in both groups. At the same inspired concentration of O2, CD animals decreased shivering and body temperature more than intact cats. While this difference resulted, in part, from a lower alveolar PO2 in CD cats, a difference between intact and CD cats was apparent when the two groups were compared at the same alveolar PO2. During more prolonged hypoxia (45 min), shivering returned but did not reach normoxic levels, and body temperature tended to stabilize at a hypothermic value. Exposure to various levels of hypoxia produced graded suppression of shivering, with the result that the change in body temperature varied directly with inspired O2 concentration. Hypoxia appears to act on the central nervous system to suppress shivering and sinus nerve afferents appear to counteract this direct effect of hypoxia. In intact cats, this counteraction appears to be sufficient to maintain body temperature under hypoxic conditions at room temperature but not in the cold.