Architecture and functional aspects of the distal airways of Antarctic seals with different habits, the Weddell Seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) and the Crabeater Seal (Lobodon carcinophagus)

Summary

The lung of the deep diving Weddell Seal is characterized by an unusually well developed periacinar dense collagenous connective tissue, and a thick coat of smooth musculature particularly in the distal bronchioli. Both, collagen and smooth musculature appear to be functionally interrelated, the first serving presumably as site of origin or attachment for the latter. The orientation of the bronchiolar smooth muscle cells is complex: there exists a basic pattern of two crisscrossing helical bundles that wind in opposite direction. In addition, longitudinal bundles are frequent both at the inside and the outside of the muscular coat. Furthermore, more or less complete ringshaped bundles occur as well as groups of muscle fibres running radially into the collagenous tissue of the surroundings of a bronchiolus. This complex architecture presumably allows active adjustment to various physiological needs of the Weddell Seal including as extremes both closing and widening of the bronchiolar lumen. Isometric contractions of the smooth musculature may stiffen the wall of the distal airways while diving. In the Crabeater Seal which dives for shorter durations and by far less deeply than the Weddell Seal, both periacinar collagen and bronchiolar smooth musculature are of similar arrangement, however, occur in considerably reduced amounts. A rich supply of autonomie nerve fibres with abundant varicosities controls the smooth muscle cells, which are interconnected by gap junctions and receive their innervation par distance (visceral type of smooth musculature). The majority of varicosities contains small clear vesicles, as is typical for cholinergic nerves, suggesting a strong parasympathetic influence. Other varicosities are presumably of peptidergic type. Mast cells and epithelial endocrine cells may exert additional influence on the musculature.