Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2016. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of American Physiological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 310 (2016): R596-R601, doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00512.2015.
Description:
Recent studies of stranded marine mammals indicate that exposure to underwater military sonar
may induce pathophysiological responses consistent with decompression sickness
(DCS). However, DCS has been difficult to diagnose in marine mammals. We investigated
whether blood microparticles (MPs, measured as number/μl plasma), which increase in response
to decompression stress in terrestrial mammals, are a suitable biomarker for DCS in marine
mammals. We obtained blood samples from trained Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus, 4
adult females) wearing time-depth recorders that dove to predetermined depths (either 5 or 50
m). We hypothesized that MPs would be positively related to decompression stress (depth and
duration underwater). We also tested the effect of feeding and exercise in isolation on MPs using
the same blood sampling protocol. We found that feeding and exercise had no effect on blood
MP levels, but that diving caused MPs to increase. However, blood MP levels did not correlate
with diving depth, relative time underwater, and presumably decompression stress―possibly
indicating acclimation following repeated exposure to depth.
Description:
Funding for this project was provided by the Office of Naval Research to MM (ONR Award #
N00014-12-10388) and SRT (ONR Award # N00014-13-10614). Additional support was
provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the North Pacific
Marine Science Foundation and the North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Research
Consortium.
Description:
2017-02-03
Keywords:
Sea lion
;
Decompression
;
Stress
;
Apnea
;
Diving
;
Bubbles
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
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