Ultrafiltration in the Branchial Heart Appendage of Dibranchiate Cephalopods: A Comparative Ultrastructural and Physiological Study

1981 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-35
Author(s):  
R. SCHIPP ◽  
F. HEVERT

It is shown that ultrafiltration could be the first step in urine formation in Sepia officinalis and Octopus vulgaris. The organization of the podocytes indicates that ultrafiltration can occur through these cells. They have a thick basal lamina in contact with the peripheral blood lacunae, and the cell apices lie in infoldings of the lumen of the appendage. Comparison between the colloid-osmotic and the hydrostatic pressures of the fluids in the branchial heart and the pericardial coelom shows that an ultrafiltration can take place during the branchial heart systole as well as during a long phase of the diastole. Comparison of the osmolalities of blood, coelomic fluid, renal-sac fluid, and sea water shows that these species are hypoosmotic regulators.

1970 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 425-443
Author(s):  
C. R. FLETCHER

1. Nereis diversicolor tolerates changes in the concentration of calcium and magnesium in its coelomic fluid proportional to the concentrations in the medium between chlorosities of 100-1000 mM/kg of water. 2. In lower salinities both ions are maintained relatively constant providing that the ratios of these ions to chloride in the medium are similar to the ratios in sea water. 3. The ratio of the concentration of calcium in the coelomic fluid to the concentration in the medium is a function of the salinity of the medium but not of the calcium concentration. 4. Both calcium and magnesium are at lower electrochemical potentials in the coelomic fluid than in the medium, indicating that it is not necessary to invoke active uptake. 5. The rate of calcium influx is substantial. 6. In salinities below to mM of chloride/kg of water the urine must contain less calcium than the coelomic fluid. 7. The significance of these results is discussed.


1965 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-98
Author(s):  
F. M. HARRISON ◽  
A. W. MARTIN

1. Experiments have been performed to determine some of the processes involved in urine formation in the octopus. The concentration of specific substances was followed in serial samples of the blood, pericardial fluid and urine for extended periods of time before and after the administration of metabolic poisons. 2. The results with inulin indicate that it is filtered since its concentration is approximately the same in the blood, pericardial fluid and urine. It is proposed that filtration of the blood occurs within the pericardial cavity. 3. The results with glucose indicate that it is reabsorbed from the filtrate in the pericardial cavity and reno-pericardial canal. Phlorizin administration increased the glucose concentration in the pericardial fluid and urine to the level of that in the blood. 4. The filtrate flows by way of the reno-pericardial canal into the renal sac. The results with phenolsulphonphthalein (PSP), para-amino hippuric acid (PAH) and urea indicate that active secretion into the filtrate takes place in the renal sacs. PSP, PAH and urea were in higher concentration in the urine than in the blood and pericardial fluid. The secretion of PAH and PSP was inhibited by DNP and benemid. 5. The theory of urine formation proposed is the following. Filtration of the blood occurs across the wall of the branchial heart appendage into the pericardial cavity. The filtrate formed passes by way of the reno-pericardial canal into the renal sacs. Reabsorption occurs en route to the renal sacs. Active secretion into the filtrate occurs in the renal sacs from where the filtrate is expelled to the outside as urine.


2002 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
DENILTON VIDOLIN ◽  
IVONETE A. SANTOS GOUVEA ◽  
CAROLINA A. FREIRE

Animais de entre-marés podem ser expostos ao ar durante a maré baixa, por pelo menos 1-2 horas. Os animais expostos ao ar são susceptíveis a perda de sal e/ou entrada de água durante chuva intensa, ou perda de água pela ação de dessecação do sol. A osmolalidade de amostras de fluido celômico obtidas do pepino-do-mar Holothuria grisea e da estrela-do-mar Asterina stellifera expostas ao ar, ou de animais controles imersos na água do mar adjacente foi determinada. As amostras foram obtidas imediatamente após a exposição ao ar, e novamente após uma hora de exposição ao ar, durante a maré baixa no campo, em tempo nublado, chuvoso, ou ensolarado, na Praia rochosa do Quilombo, Penha, Sul do Brasil. Uma hora de exposição a qualquer das condições climáticas indicadas não alterou a osmolalidade dos fluidos celômicos. Houve pequena redução nas osmolalidades dos fluidos celômicos durante a exposição ao ar com precipitação de chuva. Sugere-se que estes equinodermas possam imediatamente detectar sua exposição ao ar, e possam então reduzir a permeabilidade osmótica de sua parede do corpo, para evitar perda de água para o ar ou entrada de água/saída de sal durante a chuva. ABSTRACT Intertidal animals can be exposed to the air during low tide, for at least 1-2 hours. Animals exposed to the air are subject to salt loss (or water gain) from heavy rains or volume loss from the desiccating action of the sun. Coelomic fluid samples obtained from the sea-cucumber Holothuria grisea and the starfish Asterina stellifera exposed to the air or from control animals submerged in surrounding sea water have been assayed for osmolality. Samples were obtained right after air exposure and again after 1 hour of exposure to the air during low tide in the field, either under cloudy, rainy or sunny weather conditions, in the rocky beach of Quilombo, Penha, Southern Brazil. One hour of exposure to any of the conditions did not change coelomic fluid osmolalities. There was a slight reduction in coelomic fluid osmolalities upon air exposure during rainfall. It is suggested that these echinoderms can somehow immediately detect air exposure and reduce their body wall permeability to avoid water loss or water influx/salt loss during rainfall. RÉSUMÉ Animaux d’entre-marées peuvent êtres exposés a l’air libre pendant le reflux de la marée, pour environ une ou deux heures seulement. Ces animaux, quand exposés a l’air libre, sont susceptibles de perdre du sel et d’absorber de l’eau pendant une période de pluie intense. Par contre, ils peuvent perdre de l’eau si soumis a l’action de dessèchement due a une éxposition au soleil. On a réussi a determiner l’osmolalité d’échantillons du fluide celomique obtenus du Pépin-de-mer Holothuria grisea et de l’Étoile-de-mer Asterina stellifera exposés a l’air libre, e d’animaux-controles immergés dans l’eau de mer voisin. Les échantillons ont été obtenus tout de suite après l’exposition à l’air et, une seconde fois, après une heure d’exposition à l’air libre, pendant la durée de la marée basse, soit sous la pluie, soit au soleil ou soit sous un ciel ombrageux, à la plage rocailleuse de Quilombo, Penha, au sud du Brésil. Une heure d’éxposition à n’importe quelles conditions climatiques indiquées, n’ont pas pu altérer l’osmolalité des fluides celomiques, ce que sugère la conclusion que ces échinodermes peuvent détecter immédiatement sa exposition à l’air libre et peuvent tout de suite réduire la permeabilité osmotique de la membrane que recouvre son corps pour éviter perdre d’eau et, de la même façon, reduire l’absortion de l’eau pendant la pluie. On a observé une petite réduction de fluides celomiques pendant l’exposition a l’air, avec ocurrence de pluie.


Author(s):  
James A. Ballantine ◽  
John C. Roberts ◽  
Robert J. Morris

The sterol biochemistry of the highly advanced molluscan class – the cephalopods – is poorly understood. Few analyses of their component sterols have been published in which GC-MS has been employed (Voogt, 1973; Idler et al. 1978; ApSimon & Burnell, 1980) and these have only involved 5 species.From the available data the cephalopods appear to have a much simpler sterol make-up than the other less-advanced molluscs. Cholesterol appears to be easily the predominant sterol (ca. 90%) with minor amounts of up to 10 other common marine sterols. Of the species analysed, four (Sepia officinalis, Octopus vulgaris, Eledone aldrovandi and Illex illecebrosus) had a very similar major and minor sterol composition. Only the more primitive Nautilus sp. (Idler et al. 1978) had a noticeably different minor sterol composition.Voogt (1973) reported cephalopods to be able to synthesise sterols though molluscs generally appear only to be able to carry out this biosynthesis slowly (Goad, 1978). Cephalopods are extremely active carnivores and thus would be expected to have a diverse diet. If their component sterols are of a dietary origin, a considerable variation in their minor sterol composition might be expected on the basis of the range in sterol composition reported for pelagic organisms (e.g. Morris & Culkin, 1977), many of which may be possible dietary components.Detailed knowledge however of cephalopod diets is limited. Quite apart from the fact that healthy specimens are rarely caught in nets, those that are caught often feed voraciously on the other organisms trapped in the net prior to being brought on board for examination.


Multipolar nerve cells with the characteristics of muscle receptors have been shown in the arms of Octopus vulgaris . The dendrites of these cells branch out into the muscle fibres and their axons make their way to small, intramuscular ganglion centres (ganglion of the sucker and intramuscular nerve cords), in which they seem to end. Multipolar nerve cells with characteristics similar to those of the cells described in Octopus have also been shown in the lip of Sepia officinalis . Such evidence permits one to think that these structures are more frequent in the cephalopods than has been suspected hitherto and it confirms the presence of a system of proprioceptors.


1969 ◽  
Vol 174 (1036) ◽  
pp. 271-279 ◽  

Three species of cranchid squid have been studied at sea and found to be nearly neutrally buoyant in sea water. They each possess a very large coelom filled with a fluid whose density is low in comparison with sea water and this gives a lift sufficient to balance the denser tissues of the animal. This coelomic fluid is nearly iso-osmotic with sea water and its relatively low density arises because it is principally a solution of ammonium chloride in water. The fluid is acid and the significance of this is discussed. Two additional species of cranchid squid whose buoyancies were not measured were also shown to have very high concentrations of ammonium chloride in their coeloms and it seems likely that this buoyancy mechanism is used by all the Cranchidae.


1926 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Irving

The normal reaction of the cœlomic fluid in Patiria miniata and Asterias ochraceus is pH 7.6, and of the cæca, 6.7, compared with sea water at 8.3, all without salt error correction. A medium at pH 6.7–7.0 is optimum for the cæca for ciliary survival and digestion of protein, and is maintained by carbon dioxide production. The optimum pH found for carbon dioxide production is a true one for the effect of hydrogen ion concentration on the tissue. It does not represent an elimination gradient for carbon dioxide. Because the normal excised cæca maintain a definite hydrogen ion concentration and change their internal environment toward that as an optimum during life, there exists a regulatory process which is an important vital function.


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