Enteral respiration

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Enteral respiration, also referred to as cloacal respiration or intestinal respiration, [1] is a form of respiration in which gas exchange occurs in the posterior cavity of the enteral system. This is used in various species as an accessory respiration mechanism in hypoxic environments as a means to supplement blood oxygen.

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Turtles

Some turtles, especially those specialized in diving, are highly reliant on cloacal respiration during dives. [2] They accomplish this by having a pair of accessory air bladders connected to the cloaca which can absorb oxygen from the water. [3]

Other animals

Various fish, as well as polychaete worms and even crabs, are specialized to take advantage of the constant flow of water through the cloacal respiratory tree of sea cucumbers while simultaneously gaining the protection of living within the sea cucumber itself. At night, many of these species emerge from the anus of the sea cucumber in search of food. [4]

The pond loach is able to respond to the periodic drying in their native habitats by burrowing into the mud and exchanging gas through the posterior end of their alimentary canal. [5] [6]

Studies have shown that mammals are capable of performing intestinal respiration to a limited degree in a laboratory setting. [1] Mice were subjected to hypoxic conditions and supplied oxygen through their intestines survived an average of 18 minutes compared to 11 minutes in the control group. When the intestinal lining was abraded before oxygen was introduced, most of the animals survived for at least 50 minutes. Investigations are planned regarding the effectiveness of the strategy, the safety of this application of perfluorocarbons, and the feasibility of application to humans. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

Heliox is a breathing gas mixture of helium (He) and oxygen (O2). It is used as a medical treatment for patients with difficulty breathing because this mixture generates less resistance than atmospheric air when passing through the airways of the lungs, and thus requires less effort by a patient to breathe in and out of the lungs. It is also used as a breathing gas diluent for deep ambient pressure diving as it is not narcotic at high pressure, and for its low work of breathing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Respiratory system</span> Biological system in animals and plants for gas exchange

The respiratory system is a biological system consisting of specific organs and structures used for gas exchange in animals and plants. The anatomy and physiology that make this happen varies greatly, depending on the size of the organism, the environment in which it lives and its evolutionary history. In land animals, the respiratory surface is internalized as linings of the lungs. Gas exchange in the lungs occurs in millions of small air sacs; in mammals and reptiles, these are called alveoli, and in birds, they are known as atria. These microscopic air sacs have a very rich blood supply, thus bringing the air into close contact with the blood. These air sacs communicate with the external environment via a system of airways, or hollow tubes, of which the largest is the trachea, which branches in the middle of the chest into the two main bronchi. These enter the lungs where they branch into progressively narrower secondary and tertiary bronchi that branch into numerous smaller tubes, the bronchioles. In birds, the bronchioles are termed parabronchi. It is the bronchioles, or parabronchi that generally open into the microscopic alveoli in mammals and atria in birds. Air has to be pumped from the environment into the alveoli or atria by the process of breathing which involves the muscles of respiration.

Dead space is the volume of air that is inhaled that does not take part in the gas exchange, because it either remains in the conducting airways or reaches alveoli that are not perfused or poorly perfused. It means that not all the air in each breath is available for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Mammals breathe in and out of their lungs, wasting that part of the inhalation which remains in the conducting airways where no gas exchange can occur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Respiratory tract</span> Organs involved in transmission of air to and from the point where gases diffuse into tissue

The respiratory tract is the subdivision of the respiratory system involved with the process of respiration in mammals. The respiratory tract is lined with respiratory epithelium as respiratory mucosa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aquatic respiration</span> Process whereby an aquatic animal obtains oxygen from water

Aquatic respiration is the process whereby an aquatic organism exchanges respiratory gases with water, obtaining oxygen from oxygen dissolved in water and excreting carbon dioxide and some other metabolic waste products into the water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gas exchange</span> Process by which gases diffuse through a biological membrane

Gas exchange is the physical process by which gases move passively by diffusion across a surface. For example, this surface might be the air/water interface of a water body, the surface of a gas bubble in a liquid, a gas-permeable membrane, or a biological membrane that forms the boundary between an organism and its extracellular environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breathing gas</span> Gas used for human respiration

A breathing gas is a mixture of gaseous chemical elements and compounds used for respiration. Air is the most common and only natural breathing gas, but other mixtures of gases, or pure oxygen, are also used in breathing equipment and enclosed habitats. Oxygen is the essential component for any breathing gas. Breathing gases for hyperbaric use have been developed to improve on the performance of ordinary air by reducing the risk of decompression sickness, reducing the duration of decompression, reducing nitrogen narcosis or allowing safer deep diving

In physiology, respiration is the movement of oxygen from the outside environment to the cells within tissues, and the removal of carbon dioxide in the opposite direction that's to the environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypercapnia</span> Abnormally high tissue carbon dioxide levels

Hypercapnia (from the Greek hyper = "above" or "too much" and kapnos = "smoke"), also known as hypercarbia and CO2 retention, is a condition of abnormally elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the blood. Carbon dioxide is a gaseous product of the body's metabolism and is normally expelled through the lungs. Carbon dioxide may accumulate in any condition that causes hypoventilation, a reduction of alveolar ventilation (the clearance of air from the small sacs of the lung where gas exchange takes place) as well as resulting from inhalation of CO2. Inability of the lungs to clear carbon dioxide, or inhalation of elevated levels of CO2, leads to respiratory acidosis. Eventually the body compensates for the raised acidity by retaining alkali in the kidneys, a process known as "metabolic compensation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloaca</span> Posterior opening in zoology

In the anatomy of some animals, a cloaca, pl.: cloacae, is the rear orifice that serves as the only opening for the digestive, reproductive, and urinary tracts of many vertebrate animals. All amphibians, reptiles, birds, and a few mammals, have this orifice, from which they excrete both urine and feces; this is in contrast to most placental mammals, which have two or three separate orifices for evacuation and reproduction. Excretory openings with analogous purpose in some invertebrates are also sometimes called cloacae. Mating through the cloaca is called cloacal copulation and cloacal kissing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypoxemia</span> Abnormally low level of oxygen in the blood

Hypoxemia is an abnormally low level of oxygen in the blood. More specifically, it is oxygen deficiency in arterial blood. Hypoxemia has many causes, and often causes hypoxia as the blood is not supplying enough oxygen to the tissues of the body.

Freediving blackout, breath-hold blackout, or apnea blackout is a class of hypoxic blackout, a loss of consciousness caused by cerebral hypoxia towards the end of a breath-hold dive, when the swimmer does not necessarily experience an urgent need to breathe and has no other obvious medical condition that might have caused it. It can be provoked by hyperventilating just before a dive, or as a consequence of the pressure reduction on ascent, or a combination of these. Victims are often established practitioners of breath-hold diving, are fit, strong swimmers and have not experienced problems before. Blackout may also be referred to as a syncope or fainting.

<i>Hoplosternum littorale</i> Species of fish

Hoplosternum littorale is a species of catfish belonging to the Callichthyinae subfamily of the family Callichthyidae. It is known as tamuatá in Brazil, atipa in French Guiana, hassa in Guyana, kwi kwi in Suriname, cascadu or cascadura in Trinidad and Tobago, and busco or currito in Venezuela.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nose</span> Organ that smells and facilitates breathing

A nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which receive and expel air for respiration alongside the mouth. Behind the nose are the olfactory mucosa and the sinuses. Behind the nasal cavity, air next passes through the pharynx, shared with the digestive system, and then into the rest of the respiratory system. In humans, the nose is located centrally on the face and serves as an alternative respiratory passage especially during suckling for infants. The protruding nose that is completely separate from the mouth part is a characteristic found only in therian mammals. It has been theorized that this unique mammalian nose evolved from the anterior part of the upper jaw of the reptilian-like ancestors (synapsids).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breathing</span> Process of moving air in and out of the lungs

Breathing is the process of moving air into and from the lungs to facilitate gas exchange with the internal environment, mostly to flush out carbon dioxide and bring in oxygen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish gill</span> Organ that allows fish to breathe underwater

Fish gills are organs that allow fish to breathe underwater. Most fish exchange gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide using gills that are protected under gill covers (operculum) on both sides of the pharynx (throat). Gills are tissues that are like short threads, protein structures called filaments. These filaments have many functions including the transfer of ions and water, as well as the exchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide, acids and ammonia. Each filament contains a capillary network that provides a large surface area for exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish physiology</span> Scientific study of how the component parts of fish function together in the living fish

Fish physiology is the scientific study of how the component parts of fish function together in the living fish. It can be contrasted with fish anatomy, which is the study of the form or morphology of fishes. In practice, fish anatomy and physiology complement each other, the former dealing with the structure of a fish, its organs or component parts and how they are put together, such as might be observed on the dissecting table or under the microscope, and the later dealing with how those components function together in the living fish. For this, at first we need to know about their intestinal morphology.

Cutaneous respiration, or cutaneous gas exchange, is a form of respiration in which gas exchange occurs across the skin or outer integument of an organism rather than gills or lungs. Cutaneous respiration may be the sole method of gas exchange, or may accompany other forms, such as ventilation. Cutaneous respiration occurs in a wide variety of organisms, including insects, amphibians, fish, sea snakes, turtles, and to a lesser extent in mammals.

Human physiology of underwater diving is the physiological influences of the underwater environment on the human diver, and adaptations to operating underwater, both during breath-hold dives and while breathing at ambient pressure from a suitable breathing gas supply. It, therefore, includes the range of physiological effects generally limited to human ambient pressure divers either freediving or using underwater breathing apparatus. Several factors influence the diver, including immersion, exposure to the water, the limitations of breath-hold endurance, variations in ambient pressure, the effects of breathing gases at raised ambient pressure, effects caused by the use of breathing apparatus, and sensory impairment. All of these may affect diver performance and safety.

The physiology of underwater diving is the physiological adaptations to diving of air-breathing vertebrates that have returned to the ocean from terrestrial lineages. They are a diverse group that include sea snakes, sea turtles, the marine iguana, saltwater crocodiles, penguins, pinnipeds, cetaceans, sea otters, manatees and dugongs. All known diving vertebrates dive to feed, and the extent of the diving in terms of depth and duration are influenced by feeding strategies, but also, in some cases, with predator avoidance. Diving behaviour is inextricably linked with the physiological adaptations for diving and often the behaviour leads to an investigation of the physiology that makes the behaviour possible, so they are considered together where possible. Most diving vertebrates make relatively short shallow dives. Sea snakes, crocodiles, and marine iguanas only dive in inshore waters and seldom dive deeper than 10 meters. Some of these groups can make much deeper and longer dives. Emperor penguins regularly dive to depths of 400 to 500 meters for 4 to 5 minutes, often dive for 8 to 12 minutes, and have a maximum endurance of about 22 minutes. Elephant seals stay at sea for between 2 and 8 months and dive continuously, spending 90% of their time underwater and averaging 20 minutes per dive with less than 3 minutes at the surface between dives. Their maximum dive duration is about 2 hours and they routinely feed at depths between 300 and 600 meters, though they can exceed depths of 1,600 meters. Beaked whales have been found to routinely dive to forage at depths between 835 and 1,070 meters, and remain submerged for about 50 minutes. Their maximum recorded depth is 1,888 meters, and the maximum duration is 85 minutes.

References

  1. 1 2 Okabe., Ryo (May 14, 2021). "Mammalian enteral ventilation ameliorates respiratory failure". Med. doi: 10.1016/j.medj.2021.04.004 .
  2. Dunson, William A. (1960). "Aquatic Respiration in Trionyx spinifer asper". Herpetologica. 16 (4): 277–83. JSTOR   3889486.
  3. The Straight Dope - Is it true turtles breathe through their butts?
  4. Aquarium Invertebrates by Rob Toonen, Ph.D.
  5. McMahon, B. R. & Burggren, W. W. Respiratory physiology of intestinal air breathing in the teleost fish Misgurnus anguillicaudatus. J. Exp. Biol. 133, 371–393 (1987).
  6. Ghosh, S. K., Ghosh, B. & Chakrabarti, P. Fine anatomical structures of the intestine in relation to respiratory function of air-breathing loach, Lepidocephalichthys guntea. Acta Ichthyol. Piscat. 41, 1–5 (2011).
  7. Olena, Abby (May 14, 2021). "Mammals Can Use Their Intestines to Breathe". The Scientist Magazine. The Scientist Magazine.