Periodic breathing and genetics.
The episodic waxing and waning of ventilation is a fundamental event in sleep apnea syndromes. Post-hypoxic frequency decline (PHFD) and periodic breathing (PB) are evoked by brief hypoxic exposures in unanaesthetized and unrestrained inbred C57BL/6J mice, but not in A/J mice; and expression of PHFD differs not only among these mice strains but in among rat strains as well. These observations along with the current literature on genetic factors that operate on ventilatory behavior at rest and with chemosensory drive lead to the hypothesis that genetic factors infer some proportion of risk for the ventilatory instability observed in human sleep apnea syndromes.
Strohl
Kingman P
KP
Center for Sleep Disorders Research, Louis Stokes VA Medical Center, 111j(w) VAMC, Case Western Reserve University, 10701 East Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. kpstrohl@aol.com
D000818:Animals; D005823:Genetics; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D010507:Periodicity; D010641:Phenotype; D051381:Rats; D012119:Respiration / Q000235:genetics*; D012143:Respiratory Physiological Phenomena; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D013045:Species Specificity