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Breathing pattern and hypoxic sensitivity during ageing in a new model of obesity-resistant rat.

Soulage C, Pequignot JM, Perrin D

Laboratoire de Physiologie Intégrative, Cellulaire et Moléculaire, UMR-CNRS 5123, Université Claude Bernard, Bât Raphaël Dubois, Campus de la Doua, 43 boulevard du 11 novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France.

The Lou/C rat, an inbred strain of Wistar origin, is presented both as an obesity-resistant rat and as a relevant model of successful ageing. In the present study, we examined throughout ageing the breathing pattern and the ventilatory response to hypoxia in Lou/C and age-matched Wistar rats. Ventilation was assessed by whole body plethysmography in resting condition and during a hypoxic challenge (10% O(2)) at 2, 6, 12 and 24 months of age. Lou/C rats maintained constant their resting ventilation rate throughout ageing while Wistar rats tended to decrease their ventilation with advancing age. Elderly Lou/C as well as Wistar rats increased their frequency rather than their tidal volume in response to hypoxia. As Lou/C rats did not develop obesity, ageing per se surpasses the effect of fat accumulation and prevents old rats to mobilise their tidal volume in response to hypoxia.

Published 3 November 2004 in Respir Physiol Neurobiol, 144(1): 45-57.
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