Influence of CO2 on cardiovascular response to hypoxia in conscious dogs

The modulating effect of CO2 on the circulatory response to hypoxia in chronically instrumented conscious dogs was examined over a wide range of arterial partial pressure of O2 [PaO2 (from 80 to 25 Torr)] during a 41-min rebreathing period at three CO2 levels: hypocapnia (from PaCO2 of 32 to 18 Torr), eucapnia (32 Torr), and mild hypercapnia (40 Torr). Eucapnic and hypercapnic hypoxic responses were also measured after sinoaortic denervation (SAD) to assess the arterial chemoreceptor and baroreceptor reflex contributions. Elevating PaCO2 attenuated the tachycardia during hypoxia and produced progressively greater systemic, renal, and splanchnic vasoconstriction before but not after SAD. Vagal block converted the rises in renal and splanchnic flows observed during hypocapnic hypoxia to declines. The increase in left ventricular dP/dtmax was not affected by varying PaCO2 either before or after SAD. Coronary flow increased an additional onefold during hypoxia when PaCO2 was elevated both before and after SAD, but the tension-time indices did not differ significantly. These results indicate that: a) cardiopulmonary vagal afferents effectively counteract chemoreflex-induced vasoconstriction during hypocapnic hypoxia; b) chemoreflex vasoconstriction predominates in the renal and splanchnic beds when PaCO2 is elevated; c) the sinoaortic reflexes restrain the heart rate, but not the contractility response to hypoxia when PaCO2 is increased; and d) the augmented coronary vasodilation produced by CO2 is probably mediated by local CO2-hypoxic interactions.