Role of dopamine and arterial chemoreceptors in thermal tachypnea in conscious cats. In mammals submitted to a warm environment, intracerebral injection of dopamine (DA) produces no change or an increase in body temperature accompanied by an increase in metabolic heat production, but its effect on heat loss mechanisms such as vasodilation and tachypnea is not clear. Because the principal mechanism of heat loss in the conscious cat is thermal tachypnea, we studied the influence of DA on thermal tachypnea in response to heat stress (ambient temperature = 33-36 degrees C) in five conscious cats. We first studied the steady-state response to a DA agonist, apomorphine, which crosses the blood-brain barrier. Intravenous injection of apomorphine greatly reduced thermal tachypnea by decreasing respiratory frequency (from 94.9 to 52.5 breaths/min) and increasing tidal volume (from 13.2 to 20.4 ml). The subsequent injection of the DA antagonist haloperidol, which also crosses the blood-brain barrier, restored the initial tachypnea. To further investigate the mechanism involved in thermal tachypnea, we studied the influence of peripheral chemoreceptors by transiently stimulating or inhibiting carotid body (CB) activity during tachypneic breathing. CB stimulation by intravenous injection of NaCN or domperidone reduced thermal tachypnea mainly by decreasing the respiratory frequency, whereas CB inhibition by DA tended to increase frequency and thus tachypnea. It is concluded that 1) in a warm environment, central DA receptors are also greatly involved in heat loss mechanisms, 2) arterial chemoreceptor input appears to counteract this tachypneic breathing, and 3) thermal and hypoxic tachypnea may be controlled by the same mechanism in which a DA-like system has a key role. 