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Vascularization of the trachea in the bottlenose dolphin: comparison with bovine and evidence for evolutionary adaptations to diving

The rigid structure of the mammalian trachea is functional to maintain constant patency and airflow during breathing, but no gas exchange takes place through its walls. The structure of the organ in dolphins shows increased rigidity of the tracheal cartilaginous rings and the presence of vascular la...

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Autores principales: Ballarin, Cristina, Bagnoli, Paola, Peruffo, Antonella, Cozzi, Bruno
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society Publishing 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5936905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29765640
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171645
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author Ballarin, Cristina
Bagnoli, Paola
Peruffo, Antonella
Cozzi, Bruno
author_facet Ballarin, Cristina
Bagnoli, Paola
Peruffo, Antonella
Cozzi, Bruno
author_sort Ballarin, Cristina
collection PubMed
description The rigid structure of the mammalian trachea is functional to maintain constant patency and airflow during breathing, but no gas exchange takes place through its walls. The structure of the organ in dolphins shows increased rigidity of the tracheal cartilaginous rings and the presence of vascular lacunae in the submucosa. However, no actual comparison was ever made between the size and capacity of the vascular lacunae of the dolphin trachea and the potentially homologous structures of terrestrial mammals. In the present study, the extension of the lacunae has been compared between the bottlenose dolphin and the bovine, a closely related terrestrial Cetartiodactyla. Our results indicate that the extension of the blood spaces in the submucosa of dolphins is over 12 times larger than in the corresponding structure of the bovines. Furthermore, a microscopic analysis revealed the presence of valve-like structures in the walls of the cetacean lacunae. The huge difference in size suggests that the lacunae are not merely a product of individual physiological plasticity, but may constitute a true adaptive evolutionary character, functional to life in the aquatic environment. The presence of valve-like structures may be related to the regulation of blood flow, and curtail excessive compression under baric stress at depth.
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spelling pubmed-59369052018-05-15 Vascularization of the trachea in the bottlenose dolphin: comparison with bovine and evidence for evolutionary adaptations to diving Ballarin, Cristina Bagnoli, Paola Peruffo, Antonella Cozzi, Bruno R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) The rigid structure of the mammalian trachea is functional to maintain constant patency and airflow during breathing, but no gas exchange takes place through its walls. The structure of the organ in dolphins shows increased rigidity of the tracheal cartilaginous rings and the presence of vascular lacunae in the submucosa. However, no actual comparison was ever made between the size and capacity of the vascular lacunae of the dolphin trachea and the potentially homologous structures of terrestrial mammals. In the present study, the extension of the lacunae has been compared between the bottlenose dolphin and the bovine, a closely related terrestrial Cetartiodactyla. Our results indicate that the extension of the blood spaces in the submucosa of dolphins is over 12 times larger than in the corresponding structure of the bovines. Furthermore, a microscopic analysis revealed the presence of valve-like structures in the walls of the cetacean lacunae. The huge difference in size suggests that the lacunae are not merely a product of individual physiological plasticity, but may constitute a true adaptive evolutionary character, functional to life in the aquatic environment. The presence of valve-like structures may be related to the regulation of blood flow, and curtail excessive compression under baric stress at depth. The Royal Society Publishing 2018-04-18 /pmc/articles/PMC5936905/ /pubmed/29765640 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171645 Text en © 2018 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Biology (Whole Organism)
Ballarin, Cristina
Bagnoli, Paola
Peruffo, Antonella
Cozzi, Bruno
Vascularization of the trachea in the bottlenose dolphin: comparison with bovine and evidence for evolutionary adaptations to diving
title Vascularization of the trachea in the bottlenose dolphin: comparison with bovine and evidence for evolutionary adaptations to diving
title_full Vascularization of the trachea in the bottlenose dolphin: comparison with bovine and evidence for evolutionary adaptations to diving
title_fullStr Vascularization of the trachea in the bottlenose dolphin: comparison with bovine and evidence for evolutionary adaptations to diving
title_full_unstemmed Vascularization of the trachea in the bottlenose dolphin: comparison with bovine and evidence for evolutionary adaptations to diving
title_short Vascularization of the trachea in the bottlenose dolphin: comparison with bovine and evidence for evolutionary adaptations to diving
title_sort vascularization of the trachea in the bottlenose dolphin: comparison with bovine and evidence for evolutionary adaptations to diving
topic Biology (Whole Organism)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5936905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29765640
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171645
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