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Long‐Term Starvation in Cave Salamander Effects on Liver Ultrastructure and Energy Reserve Mobilization
Author(s) -
Bizjak Mali Lilijana,
Sepčić Kristina,
Bulog Boris
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of morphology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.652
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1097-4687
pISSN - 0362-2525
DOI - 10.1002/jmor.20183
Subject(s) - salamander , biology , cave , starvation , ecology , zoology , endocrinology
Cover illustration . Like most other cave animals, the Proteus anguinus anguinus (cave‐dwelling salamander) experiences periodically poor and discontinuous food supply and/or intermittent hypoxia that may occur for long periods in the subterranean environments. The salamander adjusts its metabolism and utilization of metabolic reserves to these fluctuating periods of food supply. In this issue of the Journal of Morphology, Mali and coauthors studied morphological and biochemical changes of liver tissue of the cave‐dwelling salamander during periods of food deprivation (pp 887–900 ). With a combination of qualitative morphological and quantitative biochemical data, the authors evaluate the adaptive capacity of the liver and the importance of the liver as an energy storing organ.