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Impaired acclimatization to chronic hypoxia in adult male and female rats following neonatal hypoxia

Department of Pediatrics, Laval University, Centre de Recherche, Hôpital St-François d'Assise, Quebec, Canada

Submitted 30 January 2009 ; accepted in final form 2 June 2009

We tested the hypothesis that neonatal exposure to hypoxia alters acclimatization to chronic hypoxia later in life. Rat pups were exposed to normobaric hypoxia (12% O₂; nHx group) in a sealed chamber, or to normoxia (21% O₂; nNx group) from the day before birth to postnatal day 10. The animals were then raised in normal conditions until reaching 12 wk of age. At this age, we assessed ventilatory and hematological acclimatization to chronic hypoxia by exposing male and female nHx and nNx rats for 2 wk to 10% O₂. Minute ventilation, metabolic rate, hypoxic ventilatory response, hematocrit, and hemoglobin levels were measured both before and after acclimatization. We also quantified right ventricular hypertrophy as an index of pulmonary hypertension both before and after acclimatization. There was a significant effect of neonatal hypoxia that decreases ventilatory response (relative to metabolic rate, E/CO₂) to acute hypoxia before acclimatization in males but not in females. nHx rats had an impaired acclimatization to chronic hypoxia characterized by altered respiratory pattern and elevated hematocrit and hemoglobin levels after acclimatization, in both males and females. Right ventricular hypertrophy was present before and after acclimatization in nHx rats, indicating that neonatal hypoxia results in pulmonary hypertension in adults. We conclude that neonatal hypoxia impairs acclimatization to chronic hypoxia in adults and may be a factor contributing to the establishment of chronic mountain sickness in humans living at high altitude.

hypoxic ventilatory acclimatization; neonatal hypoxia; chronic mountain sickness