Souvannakitti D, Kumar GK, Fox A, Prabhakar NR. Neonatal intermittent hypoxia leads to long-lasting facilitation of acute hypoxia-evoked catecholamine secretion from rat chromaffin cells. J Neurophysiol 101: 2837-2846, 2009. First published April 1, 2009 doi:10.1152/jn.00036.2009. The objective of the present study was to examine the effects of intermittent hypoxia (IH) and sustained hypoxia (SH) on hypoxia-evoked catecholamine (CA) secretion from chromaffin cells in neonatal rats and assess the underlying mechanism(s). Experiments were performed on rat pups exposed to either IH (15-s hypoxia/5-min normoxia; 8 h/day) or SH (hypobaric hypoxia, 0.4 atm) or normoxia (controls) from P0 to P5. IH treatment facilitated hypoxia-evoked CA secretion and elevations in the intracellular calcium ion concentration ([Ca 2ϩ ] i ) and these responses were attenuated, but not abolished, by treatments designed to eliminate Ca 2ϩ flux into cells (Ca 2ϩ -free medium or Cd 2ϩ ), indicating that intracellular Ca 2ϩ stores were augmented by IH. Norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (E) levels of adrenal medullae were elevated in IH-treated pups. IH treatment increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in adrenal medullae and antioxidant treatment prevented IH-induced facilitation of CA secretion, elevations in [Ca 2ϩ ] i by hypoxia, and the up-regulation of NE and E. The effects of neonatal IH treatment on hypoxia-induced CA secretion and elevation in [Ca 2ϩ ] i , CA, and ROS levels persisted in rats reared under normoxia for Ͼ30 days. In striking contrast, chromaffin cells from SH-treated animals exhibited attenuated hypoxia-evoked CA secretion. In SH-treated cells hypoxiaevoked elevations in [Ca 2ϩ ] i , NE and E contents, and ROS levels were comparable with controls. These observations demonstrate that: 1) neonatal IH and SH evoke opposite effects on hypoxia-evoked CA secretion from chromaffin cells, 2) ROS signaling mediates the faciltatory effects of IH, and 3) the effects of neonatal IH on chromaffin cells persist into adult life.
I N T R O D U C T I O NCatecholamine (CA) secretion from the adrenal medulla is critical for maintaining homeostasis under a variety of stress conditions including hypoxia (Lagercrantz and Bistoletti 1977;Seidler and Slotkin 1985). In adult animals, hypoxia-evoked CA secretion from chromaffin cells is neurogenic and requires activation of the sympathetic nervous system (Seidler and Slotkin 1986;Yokotani et al. 2002). In neonates the sympathetic nervous system is not well developed (Seidler and Slotkin 1985). In this case, hypoxia still evokes CA secretion from neonatal chromaffin cells by directly affecting their excitability and elevating intracellular calcium ion concentration ( [Ca 2ϩ ] i ; Takeuchi et al. 2001;Thompson et al. 1997). These studies demonstrate that neonatal chromaffin cells have the ability to sense acute hypoxia similar to the glomus cells of the carotid bodies of adult mammals.Chronic perturbations in environmental O 2 profoundly influence carotid body sensory respo...