Fetal responses to carotid occlusion: immaturity of buffering systems.

In postnatal animals, carotid occlusion does not stimulate reflex hormonal responses, because decreases in carotid arterial baroreceptor activity are balanced by reflex-mediated increases in vagal afferent traffic from aortic and cardiac receptors. The present experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that hormonal responses to carotid occlusion in fetal animals are not inhibited by vagal afferents. In thirteen chronically catheterized fetal sheep (125-146 days), bilateral carotid occlusion (n = 11) increased arterial blood pressure from 44.0 +/- 2.4 to 55.2 +/- 3.3 mmHg, decreased heart rate from 189 +/- 5 to 165 +/- 12 beats/min, increased plasma adrenocorticotropin from 71 +/- 15 to 248 +/- 79 pg/ml and vasopressin from 3.0 +/- 1.0 to 7.4 +/- 2.6 pg/ml but did not significantly alter renin. Plasma hormone concentrations were not significantly altered in control (n = 7) experiments or in response to unilateral carotid occlusion (n = 4). The results of these experiments demonstrate the functional immaturity of the vagal afferent buffering systems in the late-gestation fetus compared with the postnatal animal.