Seasonal changes of circulating blood parameters in the grass snake Natrix natrix natrix L

Diverse of Erythropoiesis Responding to Hypoxia and Low Environmental Temperature in Vertebrates

Erythrocytes are responsible for transporting oxygen to tissue and are essential for the survival of almost all vertebrate animals. Circulating erythrocyte counts are tightly regulated and respond to erythrocyte mass and oxygen tension. Since the discovery of erythropoietin, the erythropoietic responses to environment and tissue oxygen tension have been investigated in mice and human. Moreover, it has recently become increasingly clear that various environmental stresses could induce the erythropoiesis via various modulating systems, while all vertebrates live in various environments and habitually adapt to environmental stress. Therefore, it is considered that investigations of erythropoiesis in vertebrates provide a lead to the various erythropoietic responses to environmental stress. This paper comparatively introduces the present understanding of erythropoiesis in vertebrates. Indeed, there is a wide range of variations in vertebrates' erythropoiesis. This paper also focused on erythropoietic responses to environmental stress, hypoxia, and lowered temperature in vertebrates.

Adrenal and white cell count responses to chronic stress in gestating and postpartum females of the viviparous skink Egernia whitii (Scincidae)

This study investigates the relationships between plasma corticosterone concentrations and white cell counts in captive females of the viviparous lizard Egernia whitii during two phases of the reproductive cycle. Gestating and postpartum females were captured in the field and held in the laboratory for 4 weeks. Plasma corticosterone and progesterone concentrations and white blood cell counts were examined in blood samples taken at capture and after 24 h, 1 week, and 4 weeks in captivity. At 24 h after capture, plasma corticosterone concentrations in both groups had increased significantly compared with initial values but then returned to initial concentrations after 1 week in captivity and remained low in the 4 week samples. Plasma progesterone concentrations remained elevated in the gestating females until the week 4 sample, just prior to parturition. The hormone data suggest that capture and captivity did not represent a significant long-term stressor to these animals. The increase in plasma corticosterone concentration was associated with heterophilia in the differential leucocyte count in both groups of females. Lymphocyte numbers decreased only in gestating females, suggesting that reproductive status may influence the interaction between adrenal activity and immune function.

Temporal, population, and sexual variation in hematocrit of free-living desert tortoises: correlational tests of causal hypotheses

Hematocrit (packed cell volume, PCV) varies seasonally in some vertebrates and often differs between the sexes and among conspecific populations. Such variation in PCV may reflect variation in nutritional health, requirements for oxygen transport (metabolic rate), or hydration. The relative importance of these influences was tested with serial measurements of PCV in two Mojave Desert populations of the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) over two activity seasons, during a period with large seasonal differences in availability of food and water. Hematocrit varied widely (range = 14–40, CV = 20%), reflecting differences between populations, between sexes, between years, and over time within years. Causal hypotheses were tested by correlating PCV with physiological indicators of nutritional health (blood urea nitrogen), oxygen requirements (field metabolic rate), and hydration (length-relative mass, water-influx rate, urine osmolality, plasma sodium, and plasma osmolality). Results indicated a dominant influence of dehydration-induced hemoconcentration during this extreme drought period, although all correlations were relatively weak. Circumstantial evidence is marshalled to suggest longer term effects of nutrition (at seasonal, yearly, and population levels of variation) and perhaps oxygen requirements (driving sexual dimorphism). All these simultaneous and sometimes opposing effects interact in complex ways to produce the patterns of variation observed, and these interactions render PCV a poor indicator of physiological state in desert tortoises.