CO2 balance of a heterothermic rodent: comparison of sleep, torpor, and awake states

Abstract

CO2 homeostasis of different thermal states have been compared in a heterothermic ground squirrel, Spermophilus tereticaudus. Gas exchange (MO2, MCO2), lung ventilation (VE), and body temperature (Tb) were simultaneously measured during sleep, shallow torpor (Tb 25-29 degrees C), deep torpor (Tb 11-15 degrees C), awake heterothermia (Tb 30-42.5 degrees C), and transitions between these states. CO2 retention (falling MCO2/MO2 and VE/MCO2) accompanied entrance into sleep and torpor. CO2 retention lowered MO2 in sleeping and torpid squirrels beyond that caused by reduced Tb. In torpor at steady state, MCO2/MO2 (R) and ventilation returned to control values, and no further CO2 retention occurred. Arousal from sleep or torpor was accompanied by transiently high VE/MCO2 and R values as CO2 was released from the body fluids. R and VE/MCO2 values during heterothermia in awake squirrels (Tb 32-42.5 degrees C) showed that total body CO2 content remained unchanged until Tb reached 40 degrees C with onset of hyperventilation. Altered CO2 content of the body fluids is thus not a general feature of mammalian heterothermy. The difference in CO2 homeostasis of torpid and heterothermic awake animals may have implications for the difference in metabolic intensity of these states.