Effects of negative air ions on activity of neural substrates involved in autonomic regulation in rats

The neural mechanism by which negative air ions (NAI) mediate the regulation of autonomic nervous system activity is still unknown. We examined the effects of NAI on physiological responses, such as blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV) as well as neuronal activity,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of biometeorology 2008-07, Vol.52 (6), p.481-489
Main Authors: Suzuki, Satoko, Yanagita, Shinya, Amemiya, Seiichiro, Kato, Yumi, Kubota, Natsuko, Ryushi, Tomoo, Kita, Ichiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air Ionization
Animal Physiology
Animals
Autonomic Nervous System - physiology
Biological and Medical Physics
Biometeorology
Biophysics
Blood Pressure
Brain - physiology
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
Environmental Health
Heart Rate
Immunohistochemistry
Ions
Male
Meteorology
Nervous system
Original Paper
Physiological responses
Physiology
Plant Physiology
Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos - metabolism
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Rodents
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Summary:The neural mechanism by which negative air ions (NAI) mediate the regulation of autonomic nervous system activity is still unknown. We examined the effects of NAI on physiological responses, such as blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV) as well as neuronal activity, in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), locus coeruleus (LC), nucleus ambiguus (NA), and nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) with c-Fos immunohistochemistry in anesthetized, spontaneously breathing rats. In addition, we performed cervical vagotomy to reveal the afferent pathway involved in mediating the effects of NAI on autonomic regulation. NAI significantly decreased BP and HR, and increased HF power of the HRV spectrum. Significant decreases in c-Fos positive nuclei in the PVN and LC, and enhancement of c-Fos expression in the NA and NTS were induced by NAI. After vagotomy, these physiological and neuronal responses to NAI were not observed. These findings suggest that NAI can modulate autonomic regulation through inhibition of neuronal activity in PVN and LC as well as activation of NA neurons, and that these effects of NAI might be mediated via the vagus nerves.
ISSN:0020-7128
1432-1254
DOI:10.1007/s00484-007-0143-2