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. 2012 Mar 14;32(11):3591–3600. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2908-11.2012

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

dAIH restores ventilatory capacity in rats with cervical (C2) spinal hemisection. Using whole-body plethysmography (d), V̇E (a) and its components, VT (b) and breathing frequency (c), were assessed during air breathing (baseline) and when breathing an hypercapnic/hypoxic gas mixture (7% CO2/10.5% O2) to assess ventilatory capacity. Neither C2HS (C2HS-norm; gray bars) nor dAIH in hemisected rats (C2HS-dAIH; black bars) affected V̇E during baseline conditions. However, C2HS decreased ventilatory capacity during maximal chemoreceptor stimulation versus sham rats (p = 0.04). dAIH increased ventilatory capacity after C2HS, restoring ventilation during maximal chemoreceptor stimulation to normal levels (not significantly different vs sham rats). C2HS decreased VT during baseline (25%; p = 0.036) and chemoreceptor-stimulated breathing (22%; p = 0.005); dAIH restored 70% of this lost capacity to increase VT during chemoreceptor stimulation in C2HS rats (p = 0.028). Breathing frequency was increased by C2HS during baseline conditions (29%; p < 0.001), although not during chemoreceptor stimulation; frequency was not affected by dAIH in either condition. *p < 0.05 versus sham animals; †p < 0.05 versus C2HS-dAIH.