Functional histology of the skin in the subterranean African giant mole-rat: thermal windows are determined solely by pelage characteristics

Excavation of burrows is an extremely physically demanding activity producing a large amount of metabolic heat. Dissipation of its surplus is crucial to avoid the risk of overheating, but in subterranean mammals it is complicated due to the absence of notable body extremities and high humidity in th...

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Autores principales: Pleštilová, Lucie, Okrouhlík, Jan, Burda, Hynek, Sehadová, Hana, Valesky, Eva M., Šumbera, Radim
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7150539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32296606
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8883
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author Pleštilová, Lucie
Okrouhlík, Jan
Burda, Hynek
Sehadová, Hana
Valesky, Eva M.
Šumbera, Radim
author_facet Pleštilová, Lucie
Okrouhlík, Jan
Burda, Hynek
Sehadová, Hana
Valesky, Eva M.
Šumbera, Radim
author_sort Pleštilová, Lucie
collection PubMed
description Excavation of burrows is an extremely physically demanding activity producing a large amount of metabolic heat. Dissipation of its surplus is crucial to avoid the risk of overheating, but in subterranean mammals it is complicated due to the absence of notable body extremities and high humidity in their burrows. IR-thermography in a previous study on two species of African mole-rats revealed that body heat was dissipated mainly through the ventral body part, which is notably less furred. Here, we analyzed the dorsal and ventral skin morphology, to test if dermal characteristics could contribute to higher heat dissipation through the ventral body part. The thickness of the epidermis and dermis and the presence, extent and connectivity of fat tissue in the dermis were examined using routine histological methods, while vascular density was evaluated using fluorescent dye and confocal microscopy in the giant mole-rat Fukomys mechowii. As in other hitherto studied subterranean mammals, no subcutaneous adipose tissue was found. All examined skin characteristics were very similar for both dorsal and ventral regions: relative content of adipose tissue in the dermis (14.4 ± 3.7% dorsally and 11.0 ± 4.0% ventrally), connectivity of dermal fat (98.5 ± 2.8% and 95.5 ± 6.8%), vascular density (26.5 ± 3.3% and 22.7 ± 2.3%). Absence of large differences in measured characteristics between particular body regions indicates that the thermal windows are determined mainly by the pelage characteristics.
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spelling pubmed-71505392020-04-15 Functional histology of the skin in the subterranean African giant mole-rat: thermal windows are determined solely by pelage characteristics Pleštilová, Lucie Okrouhlík, Jan Burda, Hynek Sehadová, Hana Valesky, Eva M. Šumbera, Radim PeerJ Zoology Excavation of burrows is an extremely physically demanding activity producing a large amount of metabolic heat. Dissipation of its surplus is crucial to avoid the risk of overheating, but in subterranean mammals it is complicated due to the absence of notable body extremities and high humidity in their burrows. IR-thermography in a previous study on two species of African mole-rats revealed that body heat was dissipated mainly through the ventral body part, which is notably less furred. Here, we analyzed the dorsal and ventral skin morphology, to test if dermal characteristics could contribute to higher heat dissipation through the ventral body part. The thickness of the epidermis and dermis and the presence, extent and connectivity of fat tissue in the dermis were examined using routine histological methods, while vascular density was evaluated using fluorescent dye and confocal microscopy in the giant mole-rat Fukomys mechowii. As in other hitherto studied subterranean mammals, no subcutaneous adipose tissue was found. All examined skin characteristics were very similar for both dorsal and ventral regions: relative content of adipose tissue in the dermis (14.4 ± 3.7% dorsally and 11.0 ± 4.0% ventrally), connectivity of dermal fat (98.5 ± 2.8% and 95.5 ± 6.8%), vascular density (26.5 ± 3.3% and 22.7 ± 2.3%). Absence of large differences in measured characteristics between particular body regions indicates that the thermal windows are determined mainly by the pelage characteristics. PeerJ Inc. 2020-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7150539/ /pubmed/32296606 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8883 Text en © 2020 Pleštilová et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Zoology
Pleštilová, Lucie
Okrouhlík, Jan
Burda, Hynek
Sehadová, Hana
Valesky, Eva M.
Šumbera, Radim
Functional histology of the skin in the subterranean African giant mole-rat: thermal windows are determined solely by pelage characteristics
title Functional histology of the skin in the subterranean African giant mole-rat: thermal windows are determined solely by pelage characteristics
title_full Functional histology of the skin in the subterranean African giant mole-rat: thermal windows are determined solely by pelage characteristics
title_fullStr Functional histology of the skin in the subterranean African giant mole-rat: thermal windows are determined solely by pelage characteristics
title_full_unstemmed Functional histology of the skin in the subterranean African giant mole-rat: thermal windows are determined solely by pelage characteristics
title_short Functional histology of the skin in the subterranean African giant mole-rat: thermal windows are determined solely by pelage characteristics
title_sort functional histology of the skin in the subterranean african giant mole-rat: thermal windows are determined solely by pelage characteristics
topic Zoology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7150539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32296606
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8883
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