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The skin of fish as a transport epithelium: a review

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Abstract

The primary function of fish skin is to act as a barrier. It provides protection against physical damage and assists with the maintenance of homoeostasis by minimising exchange between the animal and the environment. However in some fish, the skin may play a more active physiological role. This is particularly true in species that inhabit specialised environmental niches (e.g. amphibious and air-breathing fish such as the lungfish), those with physiological characteristics that may subvert the need for the integument as a barrier (e.g. the osmoconforming hagfish), and/or fish with anatomical modifications of the epidermis (e.g. reduced epithelial thickness). Using examples from different fish groups (e.g. hagfishes, elasmobranchs and teleosts), the importance of fish skin as a transport epithelium for gases, ions, nitrogenous waste products, and nutrients was reviewed. The role of the skin in larval fish was also examined, with early life stages often utilising the skin as a surrogate gill, prior to the development of a functional branchial epithelium.

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Acknowledgments

Cited research from the laboratories of the authors has been supported by grants from the Royal Society of New Zealand (UOC 0711), the Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust, and the NSERC (Canada) Discovery Program. CMW is also supported by the Canada Research Chair Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, 8140, New Zealand

    Chris N. Glover

  2. Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Carol Bucking

  3. Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Chris M. Wood

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  1. Chris N. Glover
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  2. Carol Bucking
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  3. Chris M. Wood
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Correspondence to Chris N. Glover.

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Communicated by I.D. Hume.

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Glover, C.N., Bucking, C. & Wood, C.M. The skin of fish as a transport epithelium: a review. J Comp Physiol B 183, 877–891 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-013-0761-4

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