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Gas exchange in the fish swimbladder.

P Scheid¹, B Pelster, H Kobayashi

¹Institut für Physiologie, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, F.R.G.

Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology

|January 1, 1990

Summary

Fish use their swimbladder for buoyancy, relying on guanine crystals to prevent gas loss. Lactic acid and specialized blood flow in the rete mirabile help fish maintain high gas pressures, essential for deep-sea survival.

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Area of Science:

Physiology
Biophysics
Marine Biology

Background:

The fish swimbladder is crucial for neutral buoyancy, enabling fish to adjust to varying hydrostatic pressures.
Swimbladders contain high concentrations of O2 and N2, requiring mechanisms to prevent gas loss.
Guanine crystals in the swimbladder wall provide an impermeable barrier against gas diffusion.

Purpose of the Study:

To elucidate the physiological mechanisms enabling fish swimbladders to withstand high gas pressures.
To understand how gas deposition is facilitated in the swimbladder epithelium.
To explore the role of the rete mirabile's counter-current blood flow in gas accumulation.

Main Methods:

The study focuses on the physiological and biophysical processes within the fish swimbladder.
Analysis of gas exchange mechanisms, including lactic acid production and its effects on blood gas partial pressures.
Investigation of the structural and functional aspects of the rete mirabile and its hairpin counter-current blood flow.

Main Results:

Lactic acid production in the swimbladder epithelium increases blood gas partial pressures via the salting-out effect, Bohr and Root effects, and CO2 conversion.
The rete mirabile's hairpin counter-current system significantly amplifies these partial pressures, reaching up to several hundred atmospheres.
Optimal flow balance within rete capillaries and salt back-diffusion are identified as critical for efficient gas concentration.

Conclusions:

Fish swimbladders utilize a sophisticated system involving guanine impermeability, lactic acid-induced gas supersaturation, and counter-current exchange for buoyancy control.
The rete mirabile is key to achieving the extreme gas pressures necessary for deep-sea fish.
Maintaining precise flow dynamics and facilitating salt diffusion within the rete mirabile are vital for swimbladder function at depth.

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