Heart Rate Variability in Rats Acclimatized to High Altitude

The aims of this study were to relate heart morphology and functions changes to heart rate variability (HRV) components after acclimatization to high altitude and to define whether preadaptation to hypoxia could modulate HRV responses to acute hypoxic stress. Doppler-echocardiographic studies of the left ventricle were performed in female Wistar rats before, during, and after a 10-week exposure to moderate hypobaric hypoxia (CH rats, ~4000 m simulated) or normoxia (N rats, ~55 m). Right ventricular morphology and function and pulmonary artery pressure were evaluated using heart catheterization. Spectral analysis of HRV was studied after exposure in conscious unrestrained rats in normoxia and during acute hypoxic stress. Necropsy right ventricular hypertrophy and intraventricular and pulmonary artery hypertension were found in CH rats compared with N rats. Echocardiographic left ventricular morphology and functions were similar between the groups after exposures. Compared to the control group, CH rats had similar heart rates and HRV components when measured in normoxia. During acute hypoxic stress, HRV decreased in all rats, but less in CH rats. These results support the hypothesis that long-term mild hypoxia may moderate sympathetic activation induced by acute hypoxia and that right ventricular hypertrophy cannot be the direct cause of such a shift in sympathovagal nerve interaction during acute hypoxic stress.