Chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) is a frequent concomitant of sleep apnea, which can increase sympathetic nerve activity through mechanisms involving chemoreceptor inputs to the commissural nucleus of the solitary tract (cNTS). These chemosensory inputs co-store glutamate and substance P (SP), an endogenous ligand for neurokinin-1 (NK(1)) receptors. Acute hypoxia results in internalization of NK(1) receptors, suggesting that CIH also may affect the subcellular distribution of NK(1) receptors in subpopulations of cNTS neurons, some of which may express tyrosine hydroxylase, the rate-limiting enzyme for catecholamine synthesis (TH). To test this hypothesis, we examined dual immunolabeling for the NK(1) receptor and TH in the cNTS of male mice subjected to 10days or 35days of CIH or intermittent air. Electron microscopy revealed that NK(1) receptors and TH were almost exclusively localized within separate somatodendritic profiles in cNTS of control mice. In dendrites, immunogold particles identifying NK(1) receptors were prevalent in the cytoplasm and on the plasmalemmal surface. Compared with controls, CIH produced a significant region-specific decrease in the cytoplasmic (10 and 35days, P<0.05, unpaired Student t-test) and extrasynaptic plasmalemmal (35days, P<0.01, unpaired Student t-test) density of NK(1) immunogold particles exclusively in small (<0.1microm) dendrites without TH immunoreactivity. These results suggest that CIH produces a duration-dependent reduction in the availability of NK(1) receptors preferentially in small dendrites of non-catecholaminergic neurons in the cNTS. The implications of our findings are discussed with respect to their potential involvement in the slowly developing hypertension seen in sleep apnea patients.