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Several thousand infant deaths each year are attributed
to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. A new study at MU may shed
light on such respiratory disorders. David Roloff photo
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Research
Could Lead to Answers About SIDS
By Christian Basi
Between 2,000 and 3,000 infant deaths each year are attributed
to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), according to the American
Academy of Pediatrics. In addition, approximately 12 million
Americans suffer from sleep apnea, a respiratory ailment that
can lead to death in some cases. A new study from a University
of Missouri-Columbia researcher, scheduled to be published in
the Journal of Neuroscience
later this spring, explores the link between muscle movement and
breathing rhythms that may shed new light on respiratory disorders,
such as SIDS and sleep apnea.
“When you move, changes occur in your
breathing rhythms,” said Jeffrey Potts, an associate professor
of veterinary biomedical science and research investigator at
the Dalton Cardiovascular
Research Center. “For example, during physical exercise
you breathe faster and deeper, but you don't consciously think
about it because these changes occur automatically. In our research,
we found that specific types of neurons play a crucial role in
establishing breathing rhythms during exercise.”
Potts and his colleagues are studying different
neural pathways that tell the brain about the movements of the
human body. Potts is specifically interested in how these signals
alter the way humans breathe.
For his study, Potts focused on regions of
the brain that are crucial for breathing. These regions contain
distinct populations of respiratory neurons that establish normal
breathing patterns. These groups of neurons are called the pontine
and medullary respiratory groups. When activated, these regions
establish rhythmic neural signals that are sent to a group of
neurons located in the phrenic motor nucleus of the spinal cord.
The phrenic motor nucleus then determines whether breathing muscles
should contract or relax, depending on the body's immediate need
to breathe.
During his research, Potts discovered that
the movement of limb muscles stimulated a response in the brain
that changed breathing patterns. He found these pathways by simulating
skeletal muscle and then observing whether certain groups of respiratory
neurons were activated. Potts' group found that changes in breathing
patterns involved a neural pathway from skeletal muscle to respiratory
neurons in the medulla by way of the pontine respiratory group.
“Neurons in the pontine respiratory
group have long been known to play an important role in the timing
of normal breathing patterns,” Potts said. “However,
our findings are the first to identify that pontine neurons also
play a crucial role in the timing of breathing rhythms during
muscle movements associated with exercise.”
Potts identified multiple connections, or
synapses, that are required to make a change in breathing pattern.
His findings could have implications for researchers studying
other physiological or disease states, such as breathing disorders.
By identifying these neural pathways, scientists may be able to
learn more about conditions that are associated with alterations
in the normal processing of signals by these pathways, such as
may occur in SIDS or sleep apnea. Potts' research is funded by
the National Institutes of Health,
the American
Heart Association and the Children's
Hospital of Michigan.
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Last Update:
July 2, 2009
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