Acute on chronic exposure to endotoxin is associated with enhanced chemoreflex responses in preterm fetal sheep.

There is increasing evidence that exposure to infection can sensitize the fetus to subsequent hypoxic injury. However, it is unclear whether this involves compromise of the fetal cardiovascular adaptation to acute asphyxia. Chronically instrumented 103-day-old (0.7 gestational age, term is 147 days) fetal sheep in utero were randomized to receive either gram-negative lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as a continuous low-dose infusion for 120 h plus boluses of 1 μg LPS at 48, 72, and 96 h with asphyxia at 102 h (i.e., 6 h after the final LPS bolus) induced by umbilical cord occlusion for 15 min (LPS treated, n = 8), or the same volume of saline plus occlusion (saline treated, n = 7). Fetuses were killed 5 days after occlusion. LPS was associated with a more rapid fall in fetal heart rate at the onset of occlusion (P < 0.05) and with minimally lower values during occlusion (P < 0.05). The LPS-treated fetuses had lower fetal mean arterial blood pressure (BP) and greater carotid artery blood flow (CaBF) before occlusion (P < 0.05) but showed an increase in BP and fall in CaBF to similar values as saline controls during occlusion. There were no differences between the groups in femoral blood flow before or during occlusion. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, acute on chronic exposure to LPS was associated with more rapid cardiovascular adaptation to umbilical cord occlusion.