# The Influence of Nicotine Withdrawal on Oxygen Sensing

> **NIH NIH K99** · UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA · 2022 · $133,110

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
CANDIDATE: Dr. Wollman’s career objective is to establish an independent research program investigating the
influence of nicotine withdrawal on oxygen sensing. The research and career development plans have been
carefully designed to provide the necessary skills for Dr. Wollman to establish a novel, independent line of
research and include the following objectives: 1) to gain further expertise in research methodology and
techniques, 2) develop teaching and mentoring skills, and 3) to develop grant writing skills and further academic
leadership skills. ENVIRONMENT: Primary mentor Dr. Fregosi is an expert in studying breathing both in vivo
and in vitro and will provide technical guidance for Aim 1 experiments during the K99 phase. Mentors Dr.
Prabhakar is an expert in carotid sinus nerve recordings and patch clamp from carotid body glomus cells, and
Dr. Oweiss is an expert in vivo gCaMP imaging, and will provide extensive training to Dr. Wollman during the
K99 phase. Both mentors, along with the rest of the assembled advisory committee, will help to ensure Dr.
Wollman’s success with this proposal. With the exception of hands on training with Drs. Prabhakar in Chicago
and Oweiss in Florida, all of the work proposed here will be carried out in the Fregosi laboratory. Dr. Fregosi has
NIH funding and the resources needed to support Dr. Wollman during the training phase of the research project.
The University of Arizona College of Medicine is an ideal setting for the mentored phase of this proposal due to
the outstanding faculty mentors and facilities available. RESEARCH: My overarching hypothesis is that nicotine
withdrawal alters the carotid body and neurons in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), key neural structures that
are involved in oxygen sensing. Preliminary data shows that chronic nicotine exposure has no effect on the
ventilatory response to hypoxia, however rats show a blunted response to hypoxia after 48 hours of nicotine
withdrawal. To build on these novel preliminary data, I have designed the following specific aims. Aim 1: To
test the effects of nicotine withdrawal on the ventilatory response to 10, 12, or 15% hypoxia, and to test the ability
for an acute dose of nicotine to rescue this response. Aim 2: To test the effects of nicotine withdrawal on oxygen
sensing in the carotid body, NTS neuron activation and the respiratory motor output from the phrenic nerve in
vivo. Aim 3: To test the effects of nicotine withdrawal on nicotinic acetylcholine receptor function in carotid body
glomus cells and NTS neurons in vitro. This work will be carried out using plethysmography, a unique
combination of in vivo calcium imaging using fiber photometry, and concurrent phrenic nerve recordings, and
whole cell patch clamp of glomus cells in excised carotid bodies and NTS neurons in a brainstem slice. The
proposed training plan will allow Dr. Wollman to learn new experimental techniques, successfully complete the
proposed resea...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10505964
- **Project number:** 1K99HL164973-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
- **Principal Investigator:** Lila B Wollman
- **Activity code:** K99 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $133,110
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10505964

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10505964, The Influence of Nicotine Withdrawal on Oxygen Sensing (1K99HL164973-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10505964. Licensed CC0.

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