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Judith A. Neubauer
Professor
RWJMS
Department of Medicine
Medical Education Bldg, Room 559
1 Robert Wood Johnson Place
New Brunswick. NJ 08854
(732) 235-8961
FAX - 7048
neubauer@umdnj.edu |
Respiratory and sympathetic responses to brain hypoxia
with implications for sleep apnea
Studies determining mechanisms
involved in modulation of hypoxic chemosensitivity are important for
understanding changes in ventilatory control and sympathetic activity
associated with conditions resulting in chronic sustained and intermittent
hypoxia such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Chronic hypoxia (CH) and chronic
intermittent hypoxia (CIH) result in changes in sympathetic and respiratory
responses to acute hypoxia which we propose arise because of adaptations in
the hypoxic sensitivity of the C1 sympathoexcitatory and the pre-Bötzinger
complex (pre-BötC) located in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM).
These two regions have been shown to be sensitive to hypoxia increasing
sympathetic activity or producing sighs and gasps in response to local
hypoxia. Our work has established that this hypoxic sensitivity is dependent
on the activity of the oxygen sensing enzyme heme oxygenase (HO). The
induction of HO-1 closely corresponds to the restoration of the sympathetic
and sigh responses to prolonged exposure to hypoxia. We are interested in
understanding the mechanisms controlling the induction of HO-1 in these RVLM
regions and how HO regulates respiratory and sympathetic responses through
changes in their sensitivity brain hypoxia.
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