Oxygen supply of the brain cortex in acute nitrite hypoxia in rodents with different ecological specialization

Microhemodynamics and oxygen tension (pO 2 ) in the brain cortex tissues as well as the heart rate were studied in rodents with different ecological specialization during hypoxia produced by subcutaneous injection of sodium nitrite (3 mg/100 g body mass). It was shown that the blood flow in animals with low (rats) and high (muskrats) resistance to hypoxia decreased by the 30th min of the nitrite action, with its subsequent restoration to 85% and 83% of the initial level by the 60th min. The interspecies difference consisted in an increase of the brain blood flow (by 24%) in muskrats and a decrease (by 33%) in rats 15 min after the injection. In rats, simultaneously with the blood-flow dynamics, a pO 2 increase was observed in some brain cortex microareas, while in others—a pO 2 decrease 15 min after the NaNO 2 injection: meanwhile, in muskrats, at this time period a significant pO 2 decrease was observed on the background of a blood flow increase. In both animal species, the pO 2 minimal value was reached by the 45th min, while restoration almost to the initial levels—by the 60th min of the nitrite action. Changes in the rats, synchronous and unidirectional with the heart rate frequency, of the brain blood-flow, as well as tachycardia developing throughout the whole experiment in rats allow suggesting that restoration of the oxygen regime in the brain cortex microareas is provided by activation of systemic mechanisms of regulation of circulation.