Fossorial mammals are frequently exposed to hypercapnic and/or hypoxic conditions in their burrows. This research compares ventilatory responses of golden hamsters (<i>Mesocricetus auratus</i>) to different ambient respiratory gas concentrations with those of the white rat (<i>Rattus norvegicus</i>). Total body plethysmography was used to measure tidal volume (V<sub>T</sub>), respiratory frequency (R<sub>f</sub>), and minute volume (V<sub>E</sub>). The respiratory gases had carbon dioxide concentrations ranging from 0 to 790 and oxygen content ranging from 13 to 21%.
Both hypercapnic and hypoxic gas mixtures caused hyperventilation in hamsters. The more a gas mixture deviated from normal air, the greater the ventilatory increase. Combining hypercapnic and hypoxic conditions did not potentiate the response.
Rats exhibited a greater hyperventilation in response to hypercapnic-hypoxic and hypercapnic gas mixtures than did the hamsters. Hypoxia alone caused a greater response in the hamsters. Greater blood buffering capacity of hamsters offers a possible explanation for the different ventilatory responses observed between these two rodents. / M.S.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/118354 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Holloway, Deborah Ann |
| Contributors | Zoology |
| Publisher | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | iv, 74 leaves, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | OCLC# 09816071 |
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