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N Heisler

Publications and source records attributed to N Heisler.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Acid-base regulation in response to environmental hypercapnia in two aquatic salamanders, Siren lacertina and Amphiuma means.

The partial pressure of CO2 (PCO2) in certain areas of the aquatic habitat of the salamanders Siren lacertina and Amphiuma means frequently rises to values of up to 60 mm Hg. This ambient hypercapnia occurs due to hindrance of gas exchange between water and air caused by dense water-surface vegetation. In order to investigate the acid-base regulation in response to the respiratory acidosis, which wound be expected to result from the high CO2 conductance of the amphibian skin, specimens of both species were subjected to water PCO2 of 47 mm Hg while having free access to normocapnic air in a closed water recirculation system. Arterial PCO2 rose considerably from 12 to 35 mm Hg in Siren and from 17 to 36 mm Hg in Amphiuma. The resultant fall in plasma pH remained uncompensated, whereas intracellular pH of white muscle and heart muscle of Siren were little affected owing to elevated intracellular bicarbonate concentrations. The bicarbonate accumulated in the intracellular compartments was in part produced by intracellular and extracellular nonbicarbonate buffering, and in part gained from the environment in exchange for Cl- ions. Elevated water bicarbonate concentration or bicarbonate infusion into Siren had no effect on the acid-base regulation. These data suggest that the availability of bicarbonate is not a limiting factor for extracellular compensation of increased PCO2, but that the threshold of the bicarbonate-regulating structures is simply not readjusted in hypercapnia. This type of regulation may have evolved as a result of the specific environmental conditions of these animals and may be considered as an energetically efficient way of maintaining a constant milieu for the pH-sensitive intracellular structures.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗
PubMed1982

Plasma ion balance of submerged anoxic turtles at 3 degrees C: the role of calcium lactate formation.

Freshwater turtles, Chrysemys picta bellii, were submerged in groups of 7 at 3 degrees C in O2-free water for 1, 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks. Blood samples from these turtles and from 10 normoxic turtles at 3 degrees C were analyzed for plasma concentrations of lactic acid, total CO2, Na+, K+, Cl-, Ca2+, total calcium, total magnesium and osmolality. Total lactate rose during anoxia to a mean peak value of 145 mM, but the decrease in HCO-3 and Cl- and increase in K+ balanced less than 40% of the lactate. Total calcium and total magnesium rose respectively by 9.5 and 6.0 times the normoxic values after 12 weeks, at which time free [Ca2+] was 25.0 mEq (37% of the total calcium). To evaluate the possible role of bound calcium in ion balance, test solutions with calcium, but with and without 145 mM lactate, were tested for free Ca2+. In the presence of lactate, over two-thirds of the total calcium combined with lactate- to form a calcium lactate complex (possibly CaLactate+). Based on these data, it is concluded that most of the bound plasma calcium in the anoxic turtles was combined with lactate. By assuming that magnesium reacts similarly with lactate, a complete account of plasma ion balance is accomplished and the turtle's plasma ionic response to extreme lactic acidosis is described. Plasma osmolality increased during anoxia by 100 mOsm and matched the mM rise in total measured and calculated ions.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

The effects of hypercapnia on intracellular and extracellular acid-base status in the toad Bufo marinus.

Toads (Bufo marinus) were exposed to environmental hypercapnia of 5% CO2 in air, and extracellular and intracellular acid-base parameters were determined 1 and 24 h after the onset of hypercapnia. The initial drop in pH was compensated by the elevation of extracellular and intracellular bicarbonate. Relating the pH compensation to the pH drop that is expected to occur by increased PCO2 at constant bicarbonate concentration, the pH compensation in the extracellular space was 30% and reached the following values for intracellular body compartments: 65% in skeletal muscle, 77% in heart muscle and 44% in skin. The additional bicarbonate was partly produced by blood and intracellular non-bicarbonate buffers; the major portion of the remainder was related to the excretion of ammonia into the environmental water. The hypercapnia-induced changes of pH were considerably smaller in all tissue cells than in the extracellular space. Thus Bufo marinus exhibits the relative preference of intracellular over extracellular acid-base regulation that has been observed in other vertebrates.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗
PubMed1982

Intracellular and extracellular acid-base regulation in the tropical fresh-water teleost fish Synbranchus marmoratus in response to the transition from water breathing to air breathing.

In the tropical fresh water fish, Synbranchus marmoratus, transition from water breathing to air breathing, induced by reduction of oxygen partial pressure (PO2) in the environmental water below 16 mmHg, causes a considerable rise in the arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2), from 5.6 to 26 mmHg on the average (half time of the rise between 2 and 6.5 h). The associated fall in arterial plasma pH by about 0.6 units is not compensated by an increase in plasma bicarbonate concentration, whereas the intracellular pH of white skeletal muscle and heart muscle is kept almost constant by elevation of the intracellular bicarbonate concentration. The additional bicarbonate is generated by intracellular non-bicarbonate buffering, and by net transfer into the intracellular space of bicarbonate formed by buffering in blood. Only a relatively small quantity of bicarbonate is taken up from environmental water. This type of acid-base regulation, with almost complete intracellular pH compensation and only minor bicarbonate uptake (equivalent H+ release or OH- uptake) from water, is attributed to several factors. Probably the most important of these is the lack of continuous contact of the gills, which are the main site of ion transfer processes, with the environmental water during air breathing. Regardless of the mechanisms involved, this particular strategy of acid-base regulation provides a constant milieu for the intracellular structures and demonstrates the prevalence of intracellular over extracellular acid-base regulation.

Acclimatization↗
PubMed1981

Changes in intracellular pH regulation of skeletal muscle of rats with aortic stenosis.

Intracellular pH (pHi) of triceps, trapezius, quadriceps and gastrocnemius muscle tissue was determined in rats with myocardial hypertrophy due to experimental aortic stenosis (AS) and in sham operated rats (SO). During normocapnia, no significant difference in pHi between AS and So animals was observed in any of the muscle species investigated. In hypercapnia (FICO2 0.06, 0.075 or 0.100) pHi of AS was significantly higher than pHi of SO in all muscles, despite no difference in pHe, PaCO2 or [HCO3]a between AS and SO. Therefore, AS appears to be associated with an improvement of pHi regulation in skeletal muscle. In this respect, skeletal muscle behaves as hypertrophic cardiac muscle, which also shows an increased ability to regulate pHi in AS. These results suggest that the changes in pHi regulation of hypertrophic myocardium are not due to the hypertrophic process per se, but to a general phenomenon secondary to AS.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗
PubMed1981

Acid-base and electrolyte status in carp (Cyprinus carpio) exposed to low environmental pH.

Carp (Cyprinus carpio) were exposed to environmental water pH (pHw) step changes from 7.4 to 5.1, 5.1 to 4.0 and 4.0 to 3.5 pH, PCO2, PO2 and lactate in dorsal aortic blood, [Na+], [K+] and [Cl-] in dorsal aortic plasma, base loss, and ammonia excretion were determined as a function of time after each pHw step change. At pHw 5.1 the measured blood acid-base and electrolyte parameters remained essentially unchanged; the base loss, however, was increased by a factor of 2. When pHw was lowered to 4.0 an additional severe increase in the 'net base loss', expressed as the difference between base loss and ammonia excretion, resulted in progressive reduction of arterial pH and [HCO3-]. The electrolyte status was also severely disturbed by progressively falling plasma [Na+] and [Cl-], which is attributed to failure of the active H+/Na+ and HCO3-/Cl- exchange mechanisms in the gills. At pHw 4.0 the acid-exposure syndrome is characterized by acid-base and electrolyte disturbances apparently not related to hypoxia. However, at pHw 3.5, tissue hypoxia, due to disturbances of gill gas exchange and to Bohr and Root effects, appears to be an additional important factor aggravating the disturbances of acid-base and electrolyte status.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗
PubMed1979

Acid-base balance of pleural liquid in dogs.

Acid-base balance and electrolyte concentrations were measured in dogs on small artificial hydrothoraces and in vitro on bicarbonate buffered Ringer solution on serosal and interstitial side of specimens of parietal pleura. Under steady conditions, pleural liquid PCO 2 was similar to and pH higher (delta = 0.022 +/- 0.006 SE) than that in mixed venous blood. Computed pleural liquid [HCO-3] was similar to that in venous plasma and hence less than that set by the Donnan effect, with which Na+ and Cl- approximately complied. In vitro, pH, [Na+], [Cl-], and computed [HCO-3] were significantly lower (delta = 0.030 +/- 0.004; -2.6 +/- 0.5; -1.2 +/- 0.5 and -1.7 +/- 0.2 meq/L, respectively) on the serosal than on interstitial side of pleural specimens, PCO2 being 42 mm Hg on both sides . HCO-3 and Na+ were not distributed according to transpleural potential (-0.4 +/- 0.1 mV on serosal side), suggesting an active transport of Na+ and HCO-3 from pleural liquid to blood. This, however, does not seem to add to the absorption pressure of plasma proteins in setting pleural liquid pressure.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗
PubMed1979

Intracellular pH regulation of normal and hypertrophic rat myocardium.

The myocardial cell pH (pHi) observed during breathing of 0, 7.5, or 10% CO2 in air for 3 h was studied in rats with myocardial hypertrophy due to aortic stenosis and in sham-operated rats. The change in pHi during hypercapnia was significantly smaller in the rats with myocardial hypertrophy, with the apparent nonbicarbonate buffer value (delta [HCO3-]i/delta pHi) being almost three times that of the sham-operated rats. In vitro CO2 equilibrium of myocardial tissue homogenates showed no difference in nonbicarbonate buffer value between homogenates obtained from normal rats and from rats with myocardial hypertrophy. Therefore, it appears that the increased ability of the myocardial cell to regulate its pH during hypertrophy is not due to an increase in the cellular level of nonbicarbonate buffers, but seems to be related to a larger bicarbonate uptake by the myocardial cell during hypercapnia.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗
PubMed1978

Bicarbonate exchange between body compartments after changes of temperature in the larger spotted dogfish (Soyliorhinus stellaris).

Intracellular/extracellular and extracellular/sea-water bicarbonate exchanges were measured in Larger Spotted Dogfish (Sycliorhinus stellaris) exposed to 10 degrees C temperature step changes in a closed sea-water recirculation system. Changes of the bicarbonate concentration in blood plasma (= extracellular space) and in the recirculating sea-water were monitored for 36 h after the temperature change. Intracellular/extracellular transfer of bicarbonate was computed from bicarbonate changes in the extracellular space and sea-water. When the temperature was changed from 10 to 20 degrees C a signigicant transfer of bicarbonate was observed from the intracellular to the extracellular compartment and from the extracellular compartment to the sea-water. These transfers were reversed when the temperature was lowered from 20 to 10 degrees C. The exchange processes were practically completed after 18 h. The amount of bicarbonate exchanged between intracellular and extracellular compartments and sea-water was larger than predicted on the basis of in vitro buffer values of white, red and heart muscle, suggesting that additional tissues exchange significant amounts of bicarbonate with the extracellular space. It is concluded that physicochemical buffering is not sufficient to account for the observed adjustment of intracellular and extracellular pH and that bicarbonate exchange between body compartments and environment may be the most important regulatory mechamism, responsible for the final adjustment of acid-base balance in dogfish.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗
PubMed1978

Comparison of efflux rates of hydrogen and lactate ions from isolated muscles in vitro.

Relative rates of efflux of hydrogen and lactate ions from skeletal muscle in vitro were determined on isolated rat diaphragms and frog satorius muscles. After a period of lacate accumulation by stimulation in vitro, muscles were suspended in a small volume of Ringer solution for different time periods lasting up to 60 min. The pH change in the solution was monitored continuously. After the predetermined time period, samples of the muscle and the Ringer solution were analysed for lactate content. Results showed that in both types of muscles the rate of efflux of hydrogen ions exceeded that of lactate ions by factors of about 14 and 50 in the case of diaphragm and sartorius muscles respectively. Because of this difference observed in the efflux kinetics of hydrogen and lactate ions, it is evident that the lactate content of a body compartment does not represent the absolute hydrogen ion load of the same compartment, particularly during the early phase of the efflux process.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Blood flow distribution in the duck lung and its control by respiratory gases.

Blood flow to subunits of the lung was studied in the duck by use of radioactive microspheres. In spontaneously breathing, unanesthetized animals (series I) neopulmo was slightly better perfused than the average lung and along the paleopulmonic parabronchi, blood flow was found to decrease in the direction of ventilatory gas flow and thus of decreasing PO2 and increasing PCO2 in lung gas. The effects of respiratory gases on regional lung perfusion were investigated in unidirectionally ventilated animals (series II) in which gas mixtures offered to both lungs could be controlled independently. Local hypoxia resulted in reduction of local blood flow, whereas effects from hyperoxia or CO2 could not be substantiated. Reversal of the direction of unidirectional ventilatory flow (series III), and thus reversal of the profiles of respired gas concentrations along the parabronchi, suggest that the inhomogeneity in blood flow observed in spontaneously breathing animals of series I can only in part be explained as an acute adjustment to the local hypoxia. Calculations show that this inhomogeneity of blood flow constitutes an only minor impairment of the overall gas exchange efficacy of the parabronchial lung.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Estimation of shunting, systemic and pulmonary output of the heart, and regional blood flow distribution in unanaesthetized lizards (Varanus exanthematicus) by injection of radioactively labelled microspheres.

Circulatory parameters in a lizard (Varanus exanthematicus) were determined using the microsphere method. Microspheres (MS) (slightly larger than the erythrocytes and labelled with different gamma-emitting isotopes) were injected into a pulmonary vein or the left atrium for determination of the left-to-right (L-R) shunt and the regional distribution of the ventricular systemic output. Injections were also made into the sinus venosus for determination of the right-to-left (R-L) shunt. The relative blood flow was obtained as the ratio of the MS activity found in the various tissues over the total activity injected. Absolute calibration of the method was performed by introduction of an 'artificial organ' into the circulatory system (Hales, 1973). Ventricular systemic output (VSO), in five animals, averaged 121 ml/ (min.kg) and ventricular pulmonary output 119 ml/(min. kg). The value of VSO was significantly higher than those observed in other lizard species. In all experimental animals both R-L as well as L-R shunting of various extent occurred. The reliability of the microsphere method as applied in lizards is discussed and is considered to be relatively accurate even under conditions of incomplete mixing of shunted and unshunted blood in systemic heart output.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Extracellular and intracellular pH with changes of temperature in the dogfish Scyliorhinus stellaris.

Larger Spotted Dogfish, Scyliorhinus stellaris, were exposed to varied ambient temperature (t) in order to determine the behavior of extracellular pH (pHe), Pco2 and bicarbonate concentration as well as intracellular pH (pHi) in three muscle types. pHe was found to vary with temperature slightly less than expected on the basis of the rule of constant relative alkalinity in juvenile (deltapH/deltat= -0.0148 per degree centigrade) as well as in adult (deltapH/deltat= -0.0136) fish. The absolute pHe values of adult fish were about 0.08 pH units higher than in juvenile fish. Arterial pco2 increased with rising temperature, the increase being much more marked in adult than in juvenile fish. Extracellular bicarbonate concentration (calculated from the pH and Pco2 values measured in arterial blood) was not maintained constant, but diminished in juvenile and increased in adult fish with increasing temperature, indicating that extracellular pH in dogfish is regulated by variations of both Pco2 and bicarbonate concentration. Variations of intracellular pH with temperature (deltapHi/deltat), -0.0178 for white muscle, -0.0334 for red muscle, and -0.0098 for heart muscle, were significantly different from the values of the extracellular compartment and, except for white muscle, significantly different from the condition for constant relative alkalinity (deltapH/deltat= -0.0183). These results are in agreement with the rule of constant relative alkalinity with respect to extracellular pH and possibly also with respect to an overall mean intracellular pH, but the rule is not quantitatively followed by the individual body compartments and tissues.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗
PubMed1976

Ventilatory response to hypercapnia in the larger spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus stellaris.

Dogfish were exposed to sudden changes of Pco2 in inspired seawater. During hypercapnia breathing frequency remained constant, but gill ventilation was transiently increased to about 140% of control levels in the 1st h. O2 uptake was significantly increased also, but returned to the initial level before nomalization of gill ventilation. In contrast to the transient rise in gill ventilation and O2 uptake, arterial Po2 was increased for the whole period of hypercapnia. Hypercapnia results in a marked fall in pHa which returned to the initial value in 4-5 h even though hypercapnia is maintained. This rise in pHa with little change in PaCO2 was associated with an increase in plasma bicarbonate concentration. The increase of plasma bicarbonate was in part due to compensatory bicarbonate uptake from the seawater across the gills and in part was effected by transfer between intracellular tissue compartments and extracellular spaces. The compensatory bicarbonate exchange mechanism in the gills seems to have a delay both after onset and termination of hypercapnia.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗
PubMed1975

Intracellular pH of isolated rat diaphragm muscle with metabolic and respiratory changes of extracellular pH.

Relationships between intracellular and extracellular pH isolated rat diaphragms were determined both during respiratory and metabolic changes of extracellular pH. Metabolic changes of extracellular pH were produced by varying bicarbonate concentration of the suspending Krebs-Ringer solution and respiratory changes were produced by varying PCO2 of the suspending medium. At any defined extracellular pH, the bicarbonate concentration ratios between intracellular and extracellular space were the same during both metabolic and respiratory changes of extracellular pH. However, when extracellular pH varied within 7.15 and 7.4 intracellular pH remained essentially constant. In order to maintain the intracellular pH constant during extracellular pH changes, a bicarbonate efflux during metabolic changes from the intracellular compartment, and a bicarbonate influx during respiratory changes to the intracellular compartment must occur. The maintenance of identical intracellular/extracellular bicarbonate concentration ratios regardless of the mechanisms of extracellular pH changes (metabolic or respiratory) suggests an active mechanism for the transport of bicarbonate or H-+ ions.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗