Relative blood flow and cardiac output in embryos of the snapping turtle Chelydra serpentina (Reptilia; Chelonia)

• Grant number: 14/01666-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2014
• End date: September 30, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Compared Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Augusto Shinya Abe
• Grantee: Marina Rincon Sartori
• Supervisor: Dane Alan Crossley II
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of North Texas, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/16537-0 - Cardiovascular autonomic control and metabolism in lizard embryos (Reptilia; Lepidosauria), BP.DR

Abstract

Embryos of amniotes have a unique system of gas exchange in which the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) acts as the exchange surface, a structure analogous to the mammalian placenta. While circulatory system function of the mammalian fetus is well understood even basic parameters such as heart rate in other amniotic animals remain a mystery. Blood flow during non-mammalian amniotic development is divided into an extra-embryonic circulation, which plays a role in gas exchange in which the oxygen poor blood is exposed to the environment. However, the vascular structure of the CAM lays outside the embryo thus two vascular compartments are present, extra embryonic and inter-embryonic. Blood perfusion of these vascular compartments is therefore differentially regulated with the capacity for blood shunts away from or into each location. Due to the complex arrangement, embryonic circulation is of difficult access, however a minimally invasive technique was developed to overcome this problem, measuring relative blood flow via microspheres distributions. In this study the aim is to determine blood flow and cardiac output of embryonic snapping turtles by the use of the fluorescent microspheres, a technique validated as an accurate method of determination of regional blood flows. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SARTORI, MARINA R.; KOHL, ZACHARY F.; ABE, AUGUSTO S.; TAYLOR, EDWIN W.; CROSSLEY, DANE A., II. Relative Blood Flow and Cardiac Output in Embryos of the Snapping Turtle Chelydra serpentina (Reptilia; Chelonia). FASEB JOURNAL, v. 30, p. 1-pg., 2016-04-01. (14/01666-5)

SARTORI, MARINA R.; KOHL, ZACHARY F.; TAYLOR, EDWIN W.; ABE, AUGUSTO S.; CROSSLEY, II, DANE A.. Blood flow distribution in embryonic common snapping turtles Chelydra serpentina (Reptilia; Chelonia) during acute hypoxia and alpha-adrenergic regulation. COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY A-MOLECULAR & INTEGRATIVE PHYSIOLOGY, v. 238, DEC 2019. (12/06938-8, 14/01666-5)