Membrane excitability and celluar Ca2+ homeostasis in intact muscle cells from deep sea fish salvaged during an open sea expedition in 2007: elucidating mechanismus that correlate with adaption to ambient elevated pressure at depth

压力下的生命仍然是一个谜，尽管地球生物圈的99%生活在深海中，那里的环境压力可以增加到110兆帕。高压生物科学是一个发展迅速的研究领域，通过研究高压对细胞功能的影响得到越来越多的关注。在过去的几年里，许多项目涉及到压力对哺乳动物或两栖动物神经系统和肌肉的影响，并显示出在压力下功能的显著变化。然而，对于进化为使生活在深海中的动物能够绕过这些限制的机制，人们知之甚少。研究深海鱼类是复杂的，因为它们在打捞后可能无法在减压中幸存下来，而且很难被保存在水族馆中。在公海探险期间的现场实验为研究新鲜打捞上来的样本提供了一种替代方案。在本项目中，申请人的目标是在2007年7月的一次德国科考船“Sonne”号上进行的一次探险中，研究深海鱼类肌肉样本的膜兴奋性和钙稳态，这是以前从未尝试过的。这种方法的结果可能会为细胞如何在功能上与陆地上的对应物分离以承受高压提供有价值的见解。

Life under pressure is still a mystery although 99% of the earth’s biosphere resides in the deep ocean where ambient pressure can increase to levels up to 110MPa. High pressure bioscience is a growing research field gaining more and more attention from studying the effects of high pressures on cellular functions. In the last years, many projects dealt with pressure effects on nervous system and muscle in mammals or amphibians and showed marked alterations in function under pressure. However, not much is known about mechanisms that must have evolved to enable animals that reside in the deep sea to circumvent such restrictions. Studying deep sea fish is complicated as they may not survive decompression upon salvage and can hardly be kept in aquariums. On-site experimentation during open-sea expeditions offers an alternative to study freshly salvaged samples. In the present project, the applicant aims to investigate membrane excitability and Ca2+-homeostasis in muscle samples from deep sea fish during an expedition on the German research vessel ’ Sonne‘ in July 2007 that has never been attempted in this way before. The results from such an approach might provide valuable insights into how cells functionally have separated from terrestrian counterparts to withstand high pressure.