Peripheral hypercapnic chemosensitivity in trained and untrained females and males during exercise

Hypercapnic chemosensitivity is the response to the increased partial pressure of carbon dioxide and results from central and peripheral chemosensor stimulation. The hypercapnic chemosensitivity of the peripheral chemoreceptors is potentially impacted by acute exercise, aerobic fitness, and sex. We sought to determine the peripheral chemoresponse to transient hypercapnia at rest and during exercise in males and females of various fitness. We hypothesized that 1) higher fitness participants would have lower hypercapnic chemosensitivity compared with those with lower fitness and 2) males would have a higher chemoresponse than females. Forty healthy participants (20 females) participated in one test day involving transient hypercapnic chemosensitivity testing and a maximal exercise test. Chemosensitivity testing involved two breaths of 10% CO₂ repeated five times (45 s to 1 min between repeats) at rest and the first two stages of a maximal exercise test. There was no significant difference between higher and lower aerobic fitness groups, (mean difference 0.23 ± 0.22 rest; -0.07 ± 0.04 stage 1; 0.11 ± 0.17 stage 2 L/mmHg·min) during each stage (P = 0.472). However, we saw a significant increase in the hypercapnic response during stage 1 (0.98 ± 0.4 L/mmHg·min) compared with rest (0.79 ± 0.5 L/mmHg·min; P = 0.01). Finally, at 80 W, males had a higher chemoresponse compared with females, which persisted following body surface area correction (0.56 ± 0.2 vs. 0.42 ± 0.2 L/mmHg·min·m², for females and males respectively (P = 0.038). Our findings suggest that sex, unlike aerobic fitness, influences peripheral hypercapnic chemosensitivity and that context (i.e., rest vs. exercise) is an important consideration.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The hypercapnic chemoresponse to transient CO₂ showed an increase during acute physical activity; however, this response did not persist with further increases in intensity and was not different between participants of different aerobic fitness. Males and females show a differing response to CO₂ during exercise when compared with an iso-V̇co₂. Our results suggest that adaptations that lead to increased aerobic fitness do not impact the hypercapnic ventilatory response but there is an effect of sex.