1. Introduction
Studies of the autonomic regulation of the cardiovascular system
have had a long history. But with the advance in our understanding
of mechanisms operating at the cell and sub-cell levels of principal
sensors in the autonomic nervous system a study integrating such observations
at the organismal level of organization seemed appropriate.
This seemed particularly so in view of the new information on the cellular
and sub-cellular behavior of the much less studied chemoreceptor, the
aortic bodies (Piskuric et al., 2011; Piskuric and Nurse, 2012).
The purpose of this study was to determine the regulatory role of
the carotid bodies and aortic bodies on the cardiovascular response
to the challenge of hypoxemia. Specifically, we wished to explore
how the carotid bodies (cbs) and aortic bodies (abs) acting together,
acting singly, or not at all impacted the cardiovascular component of
the cardiopulmonary system charged with the delivery of oxygen to
the tissues. The animal model used was the cat since it has been
reported that the feline genome more closely approximates the
human genome than any other mammal outside of primates. Chromosomes
from the cat are highly homologous with those of the human
(Watanabe, 2000).