The cyp1a1ren-2 transgenic rat model allows for chronic dose-dependent titration of arterial pressure by a simple and non-invasive intervention, making this strain a useful model to study malignant and nonmalignant arterial hypertension. High circulating prorenin levels per se do not cause glomerulosclerosis.

The quantity and quality of the haemoglobin (Hb) of Daphnia magna is related to oxygen partial pressure in the water. Both the dynamics of hypoxia-induced Hb gene transcription, as well as Hb properties in animals incubated long-term at hyperoxia, normoxia and hypoxia, were investigated. Examination of Hb gene (dhb1-dhb3) transcription showed the expression of dhb2 and especially dhb3 to increase markedly approximately one hour after the onset of hypoxia, whereas dhb1 was expressed more or less constitutively. At an incubation close to anoxia, an onset of dhb3 transcription was found already after two minutes. In long-term incubated animals, concentration and oxygen affinity of Hb were lower at higher oxygen partial pressures. With decreasing oxygen availability, the subunit composition of Hb macromolecules changed. The share of the dhb2-encoded subunit, DHbF, increased already during moderate hypoxia. The increase of dhb3 mRNA (encoding DHbC) may be related to a transient increase of DHbC in the first days of hypoxia and/or to an additional coding of dhb3 for DHbD. The rise of DHbD, and particularly DHbA, only at severe hypoxia coincided with the increase of Hb oxygen affinity. The dhb1-encoded subunits DHbB and DHbE showed either a relatively moderate increase or even a decrease in concentration at hypoxia. In small animals with restricted homeostasis capabilities such as Daphnia, adaptation of the protein equipment seems to be a more effective strategy than allosteric modulator control.

No abstract

In contrast to the malacostracan crustaceans that use hemocyanin as the oxygen carrier, a number of branchiopod crustaceans, such as the water flea Daphnia magna, utilize hemoglobin (Hb) as the respiratory protein. By means of in situ hybridization (ISH) techniques with subsequent signal amplification using catalyzed reporter deposition, sites of Hb synthesis were localized in Daphnia magna. Based on a previously reported Hb-cDNA sequence, a specific ISH probe was designed and hybridized with the Hb-mRNA in histological sections of adult D. magna. The detection of Hb-mRNA was tissue specific and revealed that Hb is synthesized in fat cells, which play a role in fat and glycogen metabolism, and in epithelial cells of the epipodites, which are involved in osmoregulation. Sites of Hb synthesis have been identified in several invertebrate phyla, including Annelida and Nematoda. However, this is the first example in the class Crustacea, and only the second in the phylum Arthropoda.