It may sound strange to hear that saltwater fish need to stay hydrated. After all, they live in water. However, a review published in Physiology describes how nearly all saltwater fish are thought to have evolved from freshwater ancestors, and many maintain similar levels of salt in their blood as freshwater animals. Living in a saltwater environment means that these fish have to find a way to get rid of […]
Swim bladders are special organs filled with air that help regulate the buoyancy of some bony fish, like teleosts. Check out this YouTube video which explains how the swim bladder works: Because the inner surface of this organ is lined with mucosa, researchers suspected it may contain immune cells and microbes – similar to the inner lining of mammalian lungs. In a study published in Cell Discovery, researchers confirmed the […]
Ellie Runiewicz, an undergraduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Jason Breves at Skidmore College presented research on osmoregulation in teleost fish at the American Physiology Summit last month. Ellie’s research examined how Atlantic salmon are able to remove salts from the water they drink. When these fish live in marine environments, they are constantly drinking saltwater. Processing the water to remove the salts is therefore really important to their […]
Prolactin is an important pituitary hormone in mammals that works with oxytocin to provide milk for offspring. It also plays a role in promoting bonding between new mothers and their offspring. But did you know that non-mammalian vertebrates have prolactin too? Considering non-mammalian organisms do not have mammary glands, it must serve a different purpose in these animals. As it turns out, prolactin is very important in the ability […]
We are delighted to speak with Dr. Christian Damsgaard who is currently an Assistant Professor at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies & Section for Zoophysiology, Aarhus University, Denmark. Dr. Damsgaard is a member of the Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology section of the American Physiological Society and he presented his research “Active Blood Acidification Greatly Enhances Oxygen Supply to the Teleost Retina” at the 2021 Experimental Biology conference today. What initially interested you in studying […]
Seawater contains sulfate concentrations that are nearly 40 times those measured in plasma. Therefore, it is easy to see why fish would need to develop mechanisms to keep sulfate within a physiologically normal range. The kidneys of teleost fish have been known to excrete excess sulfate in the urine. However until now, it was not known whether the kidneys of cartilaginous fish do the same thing as their kidneys are rather complex. In a new […]
Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle 