Effect of age and blood pressure on the heart rate, vasopressin, and renin response to hypoxia in fetal sheep.

The purpose of these studies was to determine whether attenuating the increase in arterial and central venous pressure (CVP) during acute hypoxia can augment the renin and arginine vasopressin (AVP) responses to isocapnic hypoxia in chronically instrumented sheep fetuses. Young (122 +/- 2 days; n = 7) and old (133 +/- 1 days, n = 7) fetuses were exposed to hypoxemia (arterial PO2 = approximately 12-13 Torr) without and with attenuation of the increase in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and CVP with the simultaneous infusion of sodium nitroprusside (NP). NP did not attenuate the bradycardia induced by hypoxia. Plasma renin activity did not increase with hypoxia even when the potentially inhibitory effect of increased MAP and CVP was attenuated with NP. The AVP response to hypoxia was greater in the old fetuses. Furthermore, NP did augment the AVP response to hypoxia in the young but not old fetuses. We conclude that increases in MAP and CVP (i.e., baroreceptor input) do not influence the decrease in heart rate and lack of renin responses to acute hypoxia in the sheep fetus and that increased MAP and CVP seems to restrain the AVP response to hypoxia in younger sheep fetuses.