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Autonomic control of heart rate during orthostasis and the importance of orthostatic-tachycardia in the snake Python molurus

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Abstract

Orthostasis dramatically influences the hemodynamics of terrestrial vertebrates, especially large and elongated animals such as snakes. When these animals assume a vertical orientation, gravity tends to reduce venous return, cardiac filling, cardiac output and blood pressure to the anterior regions of the body. The hypotension triggers physiological responses, which generally include vasomotor adjustments and tachycardia to normalize blood pressure. While some studies have focused on understanding the regulation of these vasomotor adjustments in ectothermic vertebrates, little is known about regulation and the importance of heart rate in these animals during orthostasis. We acquired heart rate and carotid pulse pressure (P PC) in pythons in their horizontal position, and during 30 and 60° inclinations while the animals were either untreated (control) or upon muscarinic cholinoceptor blockade and a double autonomic blockade. Double autonomic blockade completely eradicated the orthostatic-tachycardia, and without this adjustment, the P PC reduction caused by the tilts became higher than that which was observed in untreated animals. On the other hand, post-inclinatory vasomotor adjustments appeared to be of negligible importance in counterbalancing the hemodynamic effects of gravity. Finally, calculations of cardiac autonomic tones at each position revealed that the orthostatic-tachycardia is almost completely elicited by a withdrawal of vagal drive.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), through the Brazilian National Institute of Science and Technology in Comparative Physiology (INCT-FisC). We are grateful to Professors FP de Souza, MA Fossey, LPR Venancio and T Wang for the helpful discussions on several aspects of this work. We would also like to thank the INCT-FisC professors and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions, as well as the members of Florindo’s Laboratory for the assistance with the animal care.

Ethics in animal experimentation

The experiments conducted in the present study were approved by UNESP/IBILCE Ethical Committee for Animal Research (Proc. 041/2011 CEUA), and were in accordance with all the regulations and ethical guidelines in Brazil.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiological Sciences, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Via Washington Luiz, km 235, São Carlos, SP, 13565-905, Brazil

    Vinicius Araújo Armelin & Francisco Tadeu Rantin

  2. Department of Zoology and Botany, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Cristóvão Colombo Street, 2265, São José do Rio Preto, SP, 15054-000, Brazil

    Victor Hugo da Silva Braga & Luiz Henrique Florindo

  3. Department of Zoology, São Paulo State University (UNESP), 24A Avenue, 1515, Rio Claro, SP, 13506-900, Brazil

    Augusto Shinya Abe

  4. National Institute of Science and Technology in Comparative Physiology (INCT-FAPESP/CNPq), São Paulo, Brazil

    Vinicius Araújo Armelin, Victor Hugo da Silva Braga, Augusto Shinya Abe, Francisco Tadeu Rantin & Luiz Henrique Florindo

Authors
  1. Vinicius Araújo Armelin
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  2. Victor Hugo da Silva Braga
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  3. Augusto Shinya Abe
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  4. Francisco Tadeu Rantin
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  5. Luiz Henrique Florindo
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Correspondence to Luiz Henrique Florindo.

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Communicated by H.V. Carey.

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Armelin, V.A., da Silva Braga, V.H., Abe, A.S. et al. Autonomic control of heart rate during orthostasis and the importance of orthostatic-tachycardia in the snake Python molurus . J Comp Physiol B 184, 903–912 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-014-0841-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-014-0841-0

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