Cardiac effects of hypoxia in the neotenous tiger salamanderAmbystoma tigrinum

2002 ◽  
Vol 205 (12) ◽  
pp. 1725-1734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom McKean ◽  
Guolian Li ◽  
Kong Wei

SUMMARYThe aquatic form of the tiger salamander Ambystoma tigrinum lives in high-altitude ponds and is exposed to a hypoxic environment that may be either chronic or intermittent. In many animal species, exposure to hypoxia stimulates cardiac output and is followed by an increase in cardiac mass. The working hypothesis of the present study was that the hearts of these aquatic salamanders exposed to 10-14 days of 5 % oxygen in a laboratory setting would become larger and would differentially express proteins that would help confer tolerance to hypoxia. During exposure to hypoxia, cardiac output increased, as did hematocrit. Cardiac mass also increased, but mitotic figures were not detected in the cardiac myocytes of colchicine-injected animals. The mass increase was probably due to hypertrophy, although a very slow rate of hyperplasia cannot be ruled out. Representational difference analysis indicated that at least 14 mRNAs were expressed in hearts from the hypoxic animals that were not expressed in hearts from normoxic animals. The differentially expressed genes were cloned and sequenced and confirmed as coming from the ventricles of the hypoxic salamanders. Genes differentially expressed include mitochondrial genes and genes for elongation factor 2, a protein synthesis gene. The mechanical performance of buffer-perfused hearts isolated from normoxic and hypoxic animals did not differ. Acute responses to hypoxia were also measured. The rate of oxygen consumption of unanesthetized salamanders in metabolism chambers decreased when chamber oxygen concentration was reduced below 12 % oxygen. At a chamber oxygen concentration of 4-6 %, the rate of oxygen consumption of the salamanders was reduced to approximately one-third of the normoxic rate.

1983 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Grubb ◽  
D. D. Jorgensen ◽  
M. Conner

Cardiovascular variables were studied as a function of oxygen consumption in the emu, a large, flightless ratite bird well suited to treadmill exercise. At the highest level of exercise, the birds' rate of oxygen consumption (VO2) was approximately 11.4 times the resting level (4.2 ml kg-1 min-1). Cardiac output was linearly related to VO2, increasing 9.5 ml for each 1 ml increase in oxygen consumption. The increase in cardiac output is similar to that in other birds, but appears to be larger than in mammals. The venous oxygen content dropped during exercise, thus increasing the arteriovenous oxygen content difference. At the highest levels of exercise, heart rate showed a 3.9-fold increase over the resting rate (45.8 beats min-1). The mean resting specific stroke volume was 1.5 ml per kg body mass, which is larger than shown by most mammals. However, birds have larger hearts relative to body mass than do mammals, and stroke volume expressed per gram of heart (0.18 ml g-1) is similar to that for mammals. Stroke volume showed a 1.8-fold increase as a result of exercise in the emus, but a change in heart rate plays a greater role in increasing cardiac output during exercise.


2000 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 457 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bower ◽  
B. D. Patterson ◽  
J. J. Jobling

The internal oxygen concentration and rate of oxygen consumption of detached capsicum fruits (Capsicum annuum L.) were monitored over several days. From this their overall permeance to oxygen was calculated. When wax was applied to the pedicel and its scar, permeance was reduced by 80–90%, indicating that most gas exchange occurred through this area. Readings from O2 sensors attached to the skins of the fruits were compared to those from O2 sensors inserted into the fruit cavity. These indicated that the cuticle was the major barrier to gas diffusion and that there was a concentration gradient through the capsicum flesh. Permeance of the cuticle was found to be about 0.64 x 10–4 mol O2/Pa.m2.s, while permeance to CO2 was 2–3 times higher. This suggests that the cuticle is composed of a coherent film. The low rate of gas diffusion through capsicum cuticle may allow recycling of respired CO2 by photosynthesis in the flesh before harvest.


1929 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles S. Shoup

1. The respiration of luminous bacteria has been studied by colorimetric and manometric methods. 2. Limulus oxyhaemocyanin has been used as a colorimetric indicator of oxygen consumption and indicator dyes were used for colorimetric determination of carbon dioxide production. 3. The Thunberg-Winterstein microrespirometer has been used for the measurement of the rate of oxygen consumption by luminous bacteria at different partial pressures of oxygen. 4. The effect of oxygen concentration upon oxygen consumption has been followed from equilibrium with air to low pressures of oxygen. 5. Luminous bacteria consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide independent of oxygen pressures from equilibrium with air (152 mm.) to approximately 22.80 mm. oxygen or 0.03 atmosphere. 6. Dimming of a suspension of luminous bacteria occurs when oxygen tension is lowered to approximately 2 mm. Hg (0.0026 atmosphere) and when the rate of respiration becomes diminished one-half. 7. Pure nitrogen stops respiratory activity and pure oxygen irreversibly inhibits oxygen consumption. 8. The curve for rate of oxygen consumption with oxygen concentration is similar to curves for adsorption of gasses at catalytic surfaces, and agrees with the Langmuir equation for the expression of the amount of gas adsorbed in unimolecular layer at catalytic surfaces with gas pressure. 9. A constant and maximum rate of oxygen consumption occurs in small cells when oxygen concentration becomes sufficient to entirely saturate the surface of the oxidative catalyst of the cell.


1998 ◽  
Vol 201 (19) ◽  
pp. 2779-2789 ◽  
Author(s):  
DM Webber ◽  
RG Boutilier ◽  
SR Kerr

Adult Atlantic cod (2 kg Gadus morhua) were fitted with Doppler ultrasonic flow-probes to measure ventral aortic outflow (i.e. cardiac output). The probes remained patent for upwards of 3 months, during which time detailed relationships between cardiac output (), heart rate (fh) and rate of oxygen consumption (O2) were determined as a function of swimming speed and temperature (5 degreesC and 10 degreesC). The rate of oxygen consumption increased linearly with and exponentially with swimming speed. A very good correlation was observed between O2 and (r2=0.86) compared with the correlation between O2 and fh (r2=0.50 for all 10 degreesC data and r2=0.86 for all 5 degreesC data). However, the O2 versus fh correlation gradually improved over approximately 1 week after surgery (r2=0.86). The relationship between O2 and was independent of temperature, while the relationship between O2 and fh changed with temperature. Hence, calculating O2 from is simpler and does not require that temperature be recorded simultaneously. Variations in cardiac output were determined more by changes in stroke volume (Vs) than by fh; therefore, fh was a less reliable predictor of metabolic rate than was . Given that can be used to estimate O2 so faithfully, the advent of a cardiac output telemeter would enable robust estimates to be made of the activity metabolism of free-ranging fish in nature, thereby strengthening one of the weakest links in the bioenergetic models of fisheries biology.


2001 ◽  
Vol 204 (11) ◽  
pp. 2021-2027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas L. Altshuler ◽  
Peng Chai ◽  
Jeff S. P. Chen

SUMMARY Hummingbirds evolved during a period of decline in atmospheric oxygen concentration and currently encounter varying levels of oxygen availability along their elevational distribution. We tested the hypothesis that inspiration of hyperoxic gas increases hummingbird hovering performance when birds are simultaneously challenged aerodynamically. We measured the maximum duration of hovering flight while simultaneously monitoring the rate of oxygen consumption of ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) in low-density heliox that was either normoxic (21% O2) or hyperoxic (35% O2). As air density decreased below 0.85kgm−3, hummingbirds hovered significantly longer in hyperoxia than in normoxia, but the air density at which the birds could no longer sustain hovering flight was independent of oxygen concentration. At low air densities in hyperoxia flight trials, hummingbirds appeared to increase their rate of oxygen consumption relative to flight sequences at equivalent densities in normoxia trials, but these differences were not significant. We tested the hypothesis that hummingbirds can discriminate between environments that differ in oxygen concentration. In another density-reduction experiment, hummingbirds were allowed to choose between artificial feeders infused with either normoxic or hyperoxic gases. The hypothesis was not supported because birds failed to associate oxygen concentration with a particular feeder independently of air density. Supplemental oxygen thus yields increased hovering duration at intermediate air densities, but the minimum density at which birds can fly is limited exclusively by aerodynamic considerations.


1988 ◽  
Vol 138 (1) ◽  
pp. 487-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN E. FEDER

To ascertain whether the presence of lungs per se, or some other physiological feature, might account for the differences in oxygen consumption and stamina previously observed in an interspecific comparison (Full et al. 1988), individual salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum) were exercised on a treadmill before and after their nares and mouth had been sealed. After airway closure, animals behaved normally and suffered no mortality. Airway closure reduced the routine MO2 (rate of oxygen consumption) by an average of 47% in six of seven individuals. Animals with open airways increased their MO2 2-to 4-fold during locomotion at 11 cm s−1, and did not fatigue in 22 min of exercise at this speed. Animals with closed airways managed only small increases above the routine MO2 during exercise at 11 cm s−1, and none could sustain activity for more than 10 min. Thus, exclusively skin-breathing Ambystoma cannot increase cutaneous gas exchange to compensate for the elimination of pulmonary and buccopharyngeal respiration; locomotor stamina suffers accordingly. Small salamanders can apparently increase cutaneous gas exchange during activity, although large salamanders cannot, because cutaneous diffusing capacity and the resting oxygen requirement approach one another with increasing body size; the skin of large salamanders apparently has a limited scope for aerobic activity.


1967 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-104
Author(s):  
A. E. BRAFIELD ◽  
G. CHAPMAN

1. The respiration of the pennatulid Pteroides griseum has been investigated by means of a continuous-flow polarographic respirometer and a strip-chart recorder. 2. The rate of oxygen consumption bears the same exponential relation to body weight as in more advanced phyla, and is markedly greater in expanded specimens than in contracted ones. 3. It is suggested that contracted specimens consume oxygen almost exclusively through the ectoderm but that in expanded specimens at least two-thirds of the total oxygen consumed enters through the endoderm. 4. Several sources of evidence confirm that the water within the enteron is poorly oxygenated. Rhythmically fluctuating records of the oxygen concentration of water which has flowed past expanded specimens are the result of periodic expulsions of some of this relatively deoxygenated enteric water. 5. The irrigation of the enteron is very probably brought about by peristaltic waves of contraction which pass along the length of the animal.


1986 ◽  
Vol 43 (8) ◽  
pp. 1660-1663 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Cornett ◽  
F. H. Rigler

A simple technique for measuring the oxygen consumption of seston in oligotrophic waters was developed and tested. Water samples were filtered through 0.45-μm filters. The filters were suspended in biological oxygen demand bottles containing lake water. NaN3 added to one bottle stopped respiration and served as a control to eliminate abiotic influences during the experiments. The difference in oxygen concentration between the respiring and control samples increased linearly over the 1-d experiments. Filtration of hypolimnetic water samples did not significantly alter the rate of oxygen consumption of the seston. Concentrating the seston increased the change in oxygen concentration so that respiration rates from 2 to 80 mg O2∙m−3∙d−1 could be measured. This method is simple, precise, and can measure very low rates of respiration directly.


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