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INFLAMMATION, CYTOKINES, AND TEMPERATURE REGULATION

Thermoregulation in rats during early postnatal maturation: importance of nitric oxide

Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Health Sciences Centre, The University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 4N1

Submitted 21 May 2003 ; accepted in final form 15 August 2003

Experiments were carried out to determine the role of nitric oxide in mediating autonomic and behavioral thermoregulatory control in rat pups on postnatal days 1-2, 5-6, and 10-11. For an experiment, each pup received a subcutaneous injection of vehicle, N^G-nitro-D-arginine methyl ester (D-NAME; 100 mg/kg), or N^G-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME; 100 mg/kg) before being placed in a metabolic chamber or in a thermocline with a linear temperature gradient of 23 to 43°C. In the metabolic chamber, oxygen consumption and core temperature were measured as ambient temperature was decreased from 40 to 15°C over a 60-min period. Decreasing ambient temperature elicited an increase in oxygen consumption in all age groups that received vehicle or D-NAME. The lower critical temperature and peak oxygen consumption upon exposure to cold after vehicle were 41 ± 10 ml · kg^-1 · min^-1 at 30°C, 43 ± 12 ml · kg^-1 · min^-1 at 28°C, and 55 ± 11 ml · kg^-1 · min^-1 at 25°C in the 1- to 2-, 5- to 6-, and 10- to 11-day-old pups, respectively. Administration of L-NAME abolished the oxygen consumption response to cold in the 1- to 2- and 5- to 6-day-old pups and significantly attenuated the oxygen consumption response to cold in the 10- to 11-day-old pups. Selected ambient temperature in the thermocline was not significantly affected by prior administration of D-NAME or L-NAME compared with vehicle. Thus our data provide evidence that the nitric oxide system plays a role in mediating autonomic but not behavioral thermoregulatory control in rat pups during early postnatal maturation.

autonomic thermoregulation; behavioral thermoregulation; brown adipose tissue; core temperature; newborn rats; nitric oxide; nonshivering thermogenesis; shivering thermogenesis

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