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Medulla Oxygen Content Analysis

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Rebreathing air reabsorbs CO2 that was exhaled, and recycling unused O2, this causes CO2 levels to be higher than normal and for blood to have a lower pH. The oxygen content decrease slowly because there is a reservoir of oxygen attached to hemoglobin (Fox 556). An increase of H+ cannot influence the medullary receptors, but carbon dioxide in the arterial blood can cross the blood-brain barrier and lower the pH of cerebrospinal fluid and brain interstitial fluid (Fox 557). Lower in pH on the medulla oblongata stimulates the central chemoreceptors, either directly or via glia cells to release ATP as a transmitter in response to lowered pH (Fox 557). This will then increase ventilation but in several minutes. Aortic and carotid bodies sense the

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