Cardiorespiratory physiology in the bottlenose dolphin before, during, and after breath-holding and restraint.

Call
Office of Naval Research Contracts&Grants 2015.
Principal investigator
Dr. Andreas Fahlman
Role
Individual
Year
2016

The proposed work is intended to evaluate cardiorespiratory (heart rate, stroke volume, systemic and pulmoarterial pressures, respiratory flow and expired gas composition) function in a small cetacean, the bottlenose dolphin, at rest, during apnea, during recovery from apnea and during and following a stressful situation. In addition, we will use these data to extract medical biomarkers from animals that are adapted to a range of extreme physiological challenges (e.g. hypoxia, ischemia/reperfusion, atelectasis). These biomarkers may provide valuable information for human clinical medicine.