Sodium Regulation in the Crayfish Astacus Fluviatilis

1960 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-112
Author(s):  
G. W. BRYAN

1. In distilled water or artificial tap water with a very low sodium concentration, sodium uptake by Astacus is prevented or reduced and 22Na outflux is subnormal. This is accounted for to only a small extent by reduced renal sodium losses. 2. Sodium-depleted animals replaced in artificial tap water regain sodium in a roughly exponential manner. This is shown by 22Na to be the result of a considerable increase in sodium influx coupled with an increased but lower outflux. 3. Sodium outfiux appears to consist of three components: urine losses, passive diffusion losses over the body surface and what may be an ‘exchange diffusion’ component which is high during high influx and minimal in distilled water. This latter component represents about 30% of sodium exchange under normal conditions. 4. Eyestalk removal did not affect the ability of Astacus to absorb sodium. 5. In starved animals the gills take up most of the sodium absorbed and the gut is relatively unimportant. 6. Silver staining of the gills is a passive process and the cuticle of the branchial filaments of the gill stem is selectively stained. This region would be a suitable site for ion uptake mechanisms.

1960 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. W. BRYAN

1. In Bristol tap water containing 0.4 mM./l. sodium and artificial tap water containing 2 mM./l. sodium, Astacus maintains a blood sodium concentration of about 203 mM./l. This value was not markedly affected by starvation periods of up to a month. 2. Methods of taking small blood and urine samples from individual crayfish at intervals over several hundred hours have been described. 3. Under steady state conditions, curves for the uptake and loss of 22Na by the blood are described by equations derived for a one-compartment system. 4. The volume of this single compartment, which exchanges sodium with the medium, is larger than the actual blood volume by an amount roughly equivalent to the sodium in the tissues. Exchange of sodium between the blood and tissues is probably very rapid. 5. Sodium losses in the urine account for about 6% of the total sodium outflux found using 22Na. The urine sodium concentration of about 6 mM./l. was temporarily increased by conditions such as heavy feeding when the blood may have gained additional sodium. 6. Potential difference measurements across the body surface indicate that the high blood sodium concentration is maintained by active uptake of sodium.


1960 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
G. W. BRYAN

1. In external sodium concentrations of up to 100 mM./l. the blood sodium concentration of Astacus is only slightly increased. As the external level approaches or exceeds the normal blood sodium concentration of 200 mM./l. so the increase becomes more marked. Similarly, there is an increase in urine sodium concentration. This net gain of sodium is accompanied by a considerable rise in sodium outflux as shown by 22Na. At external concentrations exceeding 300 mM./l., blood and urine concentrations rise to a similar level and active sodium movements appear to cease. 2. With increased blood sodium concentration the level in the muscles rises also. This relationship is not one of simple proportion and at high concentrations there is relatively more sodium in the muscles. 3. In artificial tap water animals with a high blood concentration lose sodium until the normal level is regained. This net loss is due to influx being much lower and outflux much higher than normal. Of the outflux, up to 70% is initially due to renal losses and losses over the body surface are higher than normal due to the excess sodium in the blood. 4. From the results given in this and previous papers the way in which sodium balance may be achieved under normal conditions is discussed.


1970 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER GREENAWAY

1. Sodium regulation in normal, sodium-depleted and blood-depleted snails has been investigated. 2. Limnaea stagnalis has a sodium uptake mechanism with a high affinity for sodium ions, near maximum influx occurring in external sodium concentrations of 1.5-2 mM-Na/l and half maximum influx at 0.25 mM-Na/l. 3. L. stagnalis can maintain sodium balance in media containing 0.025 mM-Na/l. Adaptation to this concentration is achieved mainly by an increased rate of sodium uptake and a fall of 37 % in blood sodium concentration, but also by a reduction of the sodium loss rate and a decrease in blood volume. 4. A loss of 23% of total body sodium is necessary to stimulate increased sodium uptake. This loss causes near maximal stimulation of the sodium uptake mechanism. 5. An experimentally induced reduction of blood volume in L. stagnalis increases sodium uptake to three times the normal level. 6. About 40% of sodium influx from artificial tap water containing 0.35 mM-Na/l into normal snails is due to an exchange component. Similar exchange components of sodium influx were also observed in sodium-depleted and blood-depleted snails in the same external sodium concentration.


1968 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-380
Author(s):  
D. W. SUTCLIFFE

1. Sodium uptake and loss rates are given for three gammarids acclimatized to media ranging from fresh water to undiluted sea water. 2. In Gammarus zaddachi and G. tigrinus the sodium transporting system at the body surface is half-saturated at an external concentration of about 1 mM/l. and fully saturated at about 10 mM/l. sodium. In Marinogammarus finmarchicus the respective concentrations are six to ten times higher. 3. M. finmarchicus is more permeable to water and salts than G. zaddachi and G. tigrinus. Estimated urine flow rates were equivalent to 6.5% body weight/hr./ osmole gradient at 10°C. in M. finmarchicus and 2.8% body weight/hr./osmole gradient in G. zaddachi. The permeability of the body surface to outward diffusion of sodium was four times higher in M. finmarchicus, but sodium losses across the body surface represent at least 50% of the total losses in both M. finmarchicus and G. zaddachi. 4. Calculations suggest that G. zaddachi produces urine slightly hypotonic to the blood when acclimatized to the range 20% down to 2% sea water. In fresh water the urine sodium concentration is reduced to a very low level. 5. The process of adaptation to fresh water in gammarid crustaceans is illustrated with reference to a series of species from marine, brackish and freshwater habitats.


1968 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-358
Author(s):  
D. W. SUTCLIFFE ◽  
J. SHAW

1. A quantitative study of sodium influx and loss was made on populations of Gammarus duebeni obtained from four freshwater localities in Ireland. 2. Characteristic features of sodium regulation in animals from the four localities were as follows, (a) The sodium influx increases gradually with increasing external sodium concentrations, but a maximum (saturation) level is abruptly reached at an external concentration of 1-2 mM/l. and the transporting system is half saturated at about 0.5 mM/l. sodium, (b) Over the range of sodium concentrations found in fresh waters a low rate of sodium uptake is sufficient to balance sodium losses at concentrations down to between 0.5 and 0.25 mM/l. At lower concentrations the influx is increased and the loss rate is reduced. (c) Calculations suggest that hypotonic urine containing approximately 40 mM/l sodium is produced at external concentrations ranging from fresh water to 40 % sea water. At external concentrations below 0.25 mM/l. sodium the urine concentration is probably reduced to well below 40 mM/l. sodium. 3. A detailed comparison is made of sodium regulation at external concentrations ranging between 0.07 and 1 mM/l. sodium in G. duebeni from fresh water in Ireland and from fresh water and brackish water in Britain. It is suggested that G. duebeni in Ireland constitutes a distinct physiological race adapted for living in fresh waters with relatively low sodium concentrations.


1974 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 719-736
Author(s):  
D. W. SUTCLIFFE

1. The principal features of the sodium regulatory mechanism are compared in Asellus communis Say, A. aquaticus (L.) and A. meridianus Rac. 2. Water content and total concentrations of sodium and chloride are similar in the three species, but they differ with respect to values for Kmax, Km, the loss rate, and the minimum sodium balance concentration. 3. It is suggested that A. meridianus, A. aquaticus and A. communis represent a natural series of increasing adaptation to fresh water. A. communis from North America is completely adapted to fresh water. It has the lowest loss rate, the lowest maximum saturation level (Kmax) for sodium influx, and the highest affinity (low Km value) for sodium ions in the transporting system at the body surface. In many respects A. meridianus resembles freshwater populations of Mesidotea entomon and Gammarus duebeni, and may therefore have had a relatively short history in fresh water.


1967 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-518
Author(s):  
D. W. SUTCLIFFE

1. Sodium influx and loss rates in Gammarus pulex were measured at constant temperatures. The sodium loss rate was immediately influenced by a change in temperature, with a Q10 of 1.5 to 2.0 at temperatures between 0.3 and 21.5° C. The sodium influx rate is apparently influenced in the same way. 2. The sodium uptake mechanism in G. pulex from three localities was half-saturated at an external concentration of 0.10-0.15 mM/l. sodium. 3. The total sodium loss rate remained approximately constant in animals acclimatized to the range of external concentrations from 2 to about 0.2 mM/l. sodium. 18% of the sodium was lost in urine with a sodium concentration estimated at 30-50 mM/l. The remainder of the sodium loss was due to diffusion across the body surface. 4. In animals acclimatized to concentrations below about 0.2 mM/l. sodium the sodium loss rate was reduced, due to (a) a lower diffusion rate following a fall in the blood sodium concentration, and (b) the elaboration of a more dilute urine. 5. There was a very close association between changes in the blood sodium concentration, the elaboration of a very dilute urine, and the rate of sodium uptake at the body surface. The results indicate that a fall in the blood sodium concentration leads to simultaneous activation of the sodium uptake mechanisms at the body surface and in the antennary glands. 6. It is estimated that, by producing a dilute urine, total sodium uptake in G. pulex is shared equally between the renal uptake mechanism and the mechanism situated at the body surface. 7. In sea-water media G. pulex drinks and expels fluid from the gut. In a medium slightly hyperosmotic to the normal blood concentration the amount imbibed was equal to the normal rate of urine flow when in fresh water.


1971 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-268
Author(s):  
D. W. SUTCLIFFE

1. Sodium influx was examined in Gammarus duebeni from freshwater habitats on the Kintyre and Stranraer peninsulas in western Britain, and from a brackish-water habitat in Ireland. The affinity for sodium ions in the uptake mechanism at the body surface was similar in animals from the three localities. 2. Compared with the parent population from Kintyre, an experimental population established for 2 years in water with a lower sodium concentration showed an increased affinity for sodium. 3. Sodium losses in the urine of animals from the above localities were negligible at external salinities below about 2% sea water. In contrast, urinary sodium losses in animals from a brackish-water population in Britain were higher at salinities ranging from 40% sea water to well below 2% sea water. 4. The affinity for sodium ions in uptake mechanisms at the body surface and in the antennary glands of G. duebeni from a wide range of habitats shows a market correlation with the sodium concentration of the habitat. The permeability of the body surface to outward movement of sodium is similar in G. duebeni from brackishwater and freshwater habitats. 5. It is suggested that most of the observed physiological differences between populations of G. duebeni are phenotypic in origin. The status of the freshwater ‘race’ in Ireland is briefly discussed.


1975 ◽  
Vol 228 (2) ◽  
pp. 461-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
EK Smith ◽  
L Weihrauch ◽  
D Farrington

The red blood cells of New Zealand white rabbits have a low sodium and high potassium content. As the animals mature, the sodium concentration rises and the potassium content falls; studies of red cells from a group of five young and five mature animals revealed a highly significant increase of cell sodium with age that was associated with a significant fall in the rate of ouabain-inhibited active sodium efflux. This difference was still seen when the sodium concentration within the cells from old and young animals was equalized and elevated to saturating levels for active pump efflux. Total sodium efflux, however, increased significantly with age as did total sodium influx so that a steady state was reached. Ouabain-sensitive ATPase activity fell significantly in the cell membranes from older animals and ouabain-insensitive ATPase increased with age. The survival time of 51Cr-labeled red cells was significantly longer in old than in young animals and it is concluded that as the rabbit matures its red cells survive for a longer period and this is associated with the changes of sodium transport and ATPase activity that have been documented.


1966 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raimundo Villegas ◽  
Gloria M. Villegas ◽  
Margarita Blei ◽  
Francisco C. Herrera ◽  
Jorge Villegas

The penetration of 14C-labeled erythritol, mannitol, and sucrose through the axolemma was determined in medium sized paired axons, one at rest and the other stimulated 25 times per sec. The resting permeabilities, in 10-7 cm/sec, are erythritol, 2.9 ± 0.3 (mean ± SEM); mannitol, 2.3 ± 0.4; and sucrose 0.9 ± 0.1. In the stimulated axons they are: erythritol, 5.2 ± 0.3; mannitol, 4.0 ± 0.5; and sucrose, 1.8 ± 0.3. Thus, the calculated permeabilities during activity (1 msec per impulse), in the same units, are: 100, 75, and 38, respectively. These changes in permeability are reversible. The effects of external potassium and sodium concentrations on erythritol penetration were also studied. At rest, erythritol penetration is independent of potassium and sodium concentrations. In the stimulated axons, erythritol penetration decreases when the extracellular sodium is diminished. Sodium influx (not the efflux) decreases during rest and activity when the extracellular sodium is diminished. The diminution during activity of erythritol and sodium entries in low sodium solutions may be related to a decrease of a drag effect of sodium ions on the nonelectrolyte molecules or to independent effects of the sodium concentration on sodium influx and the nonelectrolyte pathways. The axolemma discriminates among erythritol, mannitol, sucrose, and the different ionic species during rest and activity.


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