Autonomic control of cardiac output in teleost fishes

脊椎动物生活在许多环境中，维持恒定的内部身体状态的系统的进化对它们的生存至关重要。循环系统提供氧气和营养物质，以保持身体组织的活力，因为心血管需求发生变化，心脏泵送的血容量需要调整。这是由自主神经系统回路中排列的神经元精确而快速地控制的。然而，我们对这些回路在任何脊椎动物中如何运作的知识都是不完整的。在这里，我建议调查如何控制工程的多骨鱼类的心脏，心脏功能的脊椎动物的祖先的原型。心脏泵血量的主要因素是它跳动的速度。心脏起搏细胞通过产生收缩电信号来设定心率。起搏器的频率是由神经控制的，但在鱼类中，起搏器细胞的详细位置和控制心率的电路都没有很好的了解。在这项研究中，我将使用斑马鱼，一种研究广泛器官功能，遗传学和胚胎发育的模式脊椎动物，来研究心脏的3个方面。1)起搏细胞的位置和频率设定特性是什么？这些细胞是如何被控制的？我已经开发出一种新的斑马鱼心脏的制备方法，这种心脏在隔离后定期跳动。有了这个，我现在已经定位了起搏区，并将建立那里产生心律的细胞的属性。我将确定神经系统的哪些组成部分针对起搏细胞，以及这些组成部分如何组织以影响心率。这部分研究的结果将显示心脏神经调节的工作原理。2)在发育过程中，心脏的控制是如何产生的？了解心脏工作原理的一个关键组成部分是神经系统和心脏在发育过程中如何整合。我将通过探索斑马鱼卵和幼虫心脏内神经系统的解剖和功能来研究这一点，因为心脏成熟，以满足不断增长的输送氧气和营养物质的需求。3)上述研究在斑马鱼中的发现是否会更广泛地应用于硬骨鱼？在研究任何一个物种的生物系统时，研究结果可能仅限于该物种，或者可能仅适用于一小群相关动物。为了验证上述研究结果是否适用于鱼类，我将在日本青鳉中重复这些研究，日本青鳉是一组比斑马鱼进化晚得多的鱼类的代表。因此，除了所提出的工作的直接结果之外，我的结果将对我们理解自主神经系统如何作用于脊椎动物心脏以控制其功能产生重大影响。

Vertebrates live in many environments, and the evolution of systems for maintaining a constant internal body state has been critical for their survival. The circulatory system provides oxygen and nutrients to keep body tissues alive as cardiovascular demands change and the blood volume pumped by the heart needs adjustment. This is precisely and rapidly controlled by neurons arranged in circuits in the autonomic nervous system. Yet our knowledge of how these circuits operate in any vertebrate is incomplete. Here I propose to investigate how such control works in the hearts of bony fishes, representing the ancestral prototype for cardiac function in vertebrates. The main factor in how much blood the heart pumps is how fast it beats. Cardiac pacemaker cells set heart rate by generating the electrical signal for contraction. The pacemaker rate is under neural control, but in fishes neither the detailed location of pacemaker cells, nor the circuits controlling heart rate, is well understood. In this study I will use the zebrafish, a model vertebrate for investigating a wide range of organ function, genetics and embryological development, to study 3 aspects of the heart. 1) What is the site and the rate-setting properties of pacemaker cells and how are these cells controlled? I have developed a new preparation of the zebrafish heart that beats regularly after isolation in a dish. With this I have now located the pacemaker zone, and will establish the properties of cells there that generate the heart rhythm. I will determine which components of the nervous system target pacemaker cells, and how these components are organized to influence heart rate. The results of this part of the study will show the operating principles involved in nervous regulation of the heart. 2) How does the control of the heart arise during development? A key component in understanding the operating principles of the heart is how the nervous system and heart become integrated during development. I will study this by probing the anatomy and function of the nervous system within the hearts of zebrafish eggs and larvae as the heart matures to meet ever-increasing requirements for delivering oxygen and nutrients. 3) Will the findings in zebrafish from the above studies apply more broadly across bony fishes? In studying biological systems in any one species, it is possible that the findings might be limited to just that species, or may apply only to a small group of related animals. To test whether the results of the studies described above may be general among fishes, I will repeat these studies in the Japanese medaka, representative of a group of fishes that evolved much later than zebrafish. Thus, beyond the immediate outcome of the proposed work, my results will have a major impact on our understanding of how the autonomic nervous system acts on the vertebrate heart to control its function.