High Fat Feeding in Rats Alters Respiratory Parameters by a Mechanism That Is Unlikely to Be Mediated by Carotid Body Type I Cells

The carotid bodies (CB) respond to changes in blood gases with neurotransmitter release, thereby increasing carotid sinus nerve firing frequency and ultimately correcting the pattern of breathing. It has previously been demonstrated that acute application of the adipokine leptin augments the hypoxic sensory response of the intact in-vitro CB (Pye RL, Roy A, Wilson RJ, Wyatt CN. FASEB J 30(1 Supplement):983.1, 2016) and isolated CB type I cell (Pye RL, Dunn EJ, Ricker EM, Jurcsisn JG, Barr BL, Wyatt CN. Arterial chemoreceptors in physiology and pathophysiology. Advances in experimental medicine and biology. Springer, Cham, 2015). This study’s aim was to examine, in-vivo, if elevated leptin modulated CB function and breathing.