A brainstem peptide system activated at birth protects postnatal breathing.

ABSTRACT: Among numerous challenges encountered at the beginning of extrauterine life, the most celebrated is the first breath that initiates a life-sustaining motor activity¹. The neural systems that regulate breathing are fragile early in development, and it is not clear how they adjust to support breathing at birth. Here we identify a neuropeptide system that becomes activated immediately after birth and supports breathing. Mice that lack PACAP selectively in neurons of the retrotrapezoid nucleus (RTN) displayed increased apnoeas and blunted CO₂-stimulated breathing; re-expression of PACAP in RTN neurons corrected these breathing deficits. Deletion of the PACAP receptor PAC1 from the pre-Bötzinger complex-an RTN target region responsible for generating the respiratory rhythm

SUBMITTER: Shi Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7855323 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature