Oxygen delivery to the fish eye:: blood flow in the pseudobranchial artery of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Similar to gas secretion into the swimbladder, some teleosts also exhibit ocular gas secretion to supply their thick and avascular retina with oxygen. The process in the eye, however, is complicated by the fact that the retina is supplied with arterial blood only indirectly through the pseudobranch, a reduced gill arch of still unknown function. Approaches for closer analysis of the physiological implications of this serial blood supply arrangement and the associated process of O-2 release include complete unilateral vascular isolation of eye and/or pseudobranch while maintaining normal blood flow characteristics for undisturbed operation of the counter-current rete mirabile. Blood flow velocity in the afferent pseudobranchial artery (aPA; essentially equal to ophthalmic artery flow) of rainbow trout was measured by application of ultrasonic Doppler techniques. Accurate determination of flow rate in the untouched vessel was facilitated by mounting the Doppler crystal with a custom-made holder on the bone of the jaw and raw signal analysis by Fast Fourier Transformation for improved signal/noise ratio. Normal unilateral aPA blood flow was 746 mu l min(-1) kg(-1) body weight, (similar to 1.6% of cardiac output), the tissue-weight-specific blood flow was 3.6 ml min(-1) g(-1) for pseudobranch and 2.3 ml min(-1) g(-1) for the retina. Only about 28% of the oxygen potentially available with maximal activation of the Root effect is actually consumed in pseudobranch and retina. This generous supply of blood and the implicit safety margin may serve minimization of pH disturbances of retinal tissues, but may also come suitable during unilateral occlusion of supplying arteries for continued oxygen supply to the retinae. During contralateral occlusion, flow through the ipsilateral aPA increased to 136%. According to the normally low O-2 extraction, a minimal flow of 36% through bilateral anastomosis and contralateral ophthalmic artery may maintain complete contralateral oxygen supply.