John L Carroll , MD
Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Physiology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences/College of Medicine
Phone: (501) 364- 1100

Dr. John L. Carroll is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Physiology. All mammals, including humans, need oxygen to survive. Oxygen levels in the blood must be precisely controlled; too much or too little oxygen is toxic. Therefore, regulation of blood oxygen level is critically important to normal functioning. Low oxygen levels may lead to death, growth failure, impaired cognitive development, and abnormalities in cardiovascular function, breathing control maturation, and lung function. The main sensors of blood oxygen in mammals are the carotid body chemoreceptors, which control blood oxygen levels very precisely by adjusting breathing to meet the oxygen needs of the body across the full range of activities, from sleep to strenuous exercise. They also drive critically important respiratory reflexes such as arousal from sleep when oxygen levels drop and cardiovascular responses to oxygen that control heart rate and blood pressure.

Surprisingly, given their importance, the carotid body oxygen chemoreceptors are ‘turned off’ at birth and become more sensitive to oxygen during early life. Abnormal development of the carotid body chemoreceptors during infancy can result in life-long abnormalities. His laboratory studies the perinatal and postnatal maturation of oxygen sensing by the carotid body chemoreceptors.

The ultimate goal of work in his laboratory is to determine how the body senses and controls oxygen levels in the blood, as well as how this changes in the developing infant, so that a number of potentially life threatening disorders such as asthma, chronic lung disease of infancy, apnea, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) can be better treated or prevented.

Kim I, Boyle KM, Carroll JL. Postnatal development of E-4031-sensitive potassium current in rat carotid chemoreceptor cells. J Appl Physiol. 2005 Apr;98(4):1469-77.

Carroll JL, Boyle KM, Wasicko MJ, Sterni LM. Dopamine D2 receptor modulation of carotid body type 1 cell intracellular calcium in developing rats. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2005 May;288(5):L910-6. Epub 2005 Jan 28. PMID: 15681393. Journal

Donnelly DF, Kim I, Carle C, Carroll JL. Perinatal hyperoxia for 14 days increases nerve conduction time and the acute unitary response to hypoxia of rat carotid body chemoreceptors. J Appl Physiol. 2005 Jul;99(1):114-9. Epub 2005 Feb 24.
PMID: 15731397.

Amin RS, Kimball TR, Kalra M, Jeffries JL, Carroll JL, Bean JA, Witt SA, Glascock BJ, Daniels SR. Left ventricular function in children with sleep-disordered breathing. Am J Cardiol. 2005 Mar 15;95(6):801-4.

Donnelly DF and Carroll JL. Mitochondrial function and carotid body transduction. Oxygen sensing at high altitude. High Alt Med Biol. 2005 Summer;6(2):121-32. (Invited, peer-reviewed review article).

Kim I and Carroll JL. Postnatal development of carotid body glomus cell O2 sensitivity. Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology, Special Issue on Development of Respiratory Control, Bavis R & Carroll JL, co-guest-editors. Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2005 Nov 15;149(1-3):201-15. (Invited, peer-reviewed review article).

Bairam A and Carroll JL. Neurotransmitters in carotid body development. Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology, Special Issue on Development of Respiratory Control, Bavis R & Carroll JL, co-guest-editors. Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2005 Nov 15;149(1-3):217-32. (Invited, peer-reviewed review article).

Wasicko MJ, and Breitwieser GE, Kim I, Carroll JL. Postnatal development of carotid body glomus cell response to hypoxia. Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2006 (Feb 6, e-published ahead of print).

*To find additional publications by this author, please visit Pubmed Central, a National Institutes of Health-operated site for electronic distribution of life sciences research reports.

NIH: Postnatal resetting of carotid chemoreceptor sensitivity