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First published online May 29, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 1849-1858 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.026997
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The regulatory role of glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors in pulsatile urea excretion of the gulf toadfish, Opsanus beta

Tamara M. Rodela1,*, M. Danielle McDonald2, Patrick J. Walsh1 and Kathleen M. Gilmour1

1 Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5
2 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33149, USA

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: trode075{at}uottawa.ca)

Accepted 12 March 2009

Gulf toadfish, Opsanus beta, are one among a group of unusual teleosts that excrete urea as their predominant nitrogen end product in response to stressful conditions. Under conditions of crowding or confinement, fasted toadfish excrete the majority of their nitrogen waste in large pulses of urea (>90% of total nitrogen) lasting up to 3 h. An earlier study demonstrated that cortisol has an inhibitory influence on urea pulse size. The present study tested the hypothesis that cortisol mediates changes in urea pulse size in ureotelic toadfish through the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and not the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). In vivo pharmacological investigations were used to manipulate the corticosteroid system in crowded toadfish, including experimentally lowering plasma cortisol levels by the injection of metyrapone, blocking cortisol receptors through exposure to either RU-486 (GR antagonist) and spironolactone (MR antagonist), or through exogenous infusion of the tetrapod mineralocorticoid aldosterone (tetrapod MR agonist). The data demonstrate that lowering the activity of cortisol, either by inhibiting its synthesis or by blocking its receptor, resulted in a two- to threefold increase in pulse size with no accompanying change in pulse frequency. Treatment with spironolactone elicited a minor (~1.5-fold) reduction in pulse size, as did aldosterone treatment, suggesting that the anti-mineralocorticoid spironolactone has an agonistic effect in a piscine system. In summary, the evidence suggests that urea transport mechanisms in pulsing toadfish are upregulated in response to low cortisol, mediated primarily by GRs, and to a lesser extent MRs.

Key words: toadfish, urea excretion, cortisol, glucocorticoid receptor, mineralocorticoid receptor, metyrapone, RU-486, spironolactone, aldosterone


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