MinireviewHormonal control of salt and water balance in vertebrates
Section snippets
Physiological requirements for salt and water transport
Maintenance of constant intracellular and extracellular ionic and osmotic conditions (Bernard’s constancy of ‘le milieu intérieur’) is critical for the normal functioning of cells. With several notable exceptions, such as hagfish, sharks and ureotelic marine frogs, the majority of vertebrates maintain a remarkably similar salt content of their extracellular fluid, approximately one-third that of seawater. This basic strategy results in different transport demands for vertebrates depending on
Acute endocrine responses
Most organisms have at least a limited capacity to respond to an osmotic or ionic challenge by rapidly changing existing transport mechanism. Some of these may be independent of hormones (autoregulatory), such as changes in ion availability to transporters. Most changes in ion transport, however, are cued by neuroendocrine or endocrine factors. Although there is a continuum of temporal responses, we can roughly divide transport responses into those that activate existing transport mechanisms
Acclimation endocrine responses
Acclimation responses increase the overall capacity of an organism to perform a physiological function. The acclimation response is similar or identical to phenotypic plasticity; its presence or absence will often determine the capacity of an animal to live in certain habitats and thus determine the ecological limits of species’ distributions. A classic example of acclimation in human physiology is the increased capacity for oxygen extraction after exposure to high altitudes. This occurs over a
Summary and perspectives
In this review we have summarized the acute and acclimation endocrine responses that regulate physiological responses to osmotic challenges. Acute responses are rapid (seconds to hours) and are the result of activation of existing transport mechanisms. Examples of acute regulation include behavioral changes such as drinking, altered blood flow, insertion of transporters into the plasma membrane, and phosphorylation of transporters. Acclimation responses occur over hours and days and are the
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