Cigarette smoke exposure causes systemic and autonomic cardiocirculatory changes in rats depending on the daily exposure dose.

Aims: To evaluate the systemic changes and autonomic cardiocirculatory control of awaken rats chronically exposed to the cigarette smoke (CS) of 1 or 2 cigarettes/day.

Main Methods: Rats were exposed to clean air (control) or cigarette smoke of 1 (CS1) or 2 (CS2) cigarettes/animal/day for 30 days. Then, arterial pressure (AP) and heart rate (HR) were recorded in conscious rats to assess spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity and HR and AP variabilities.