Planarians are widely used animal models for studies in regeneration, developmental biology, neurobiology and behavior. However, surprisingly little is known about other aspects of their basic biology, even though such information might help validate these flatworms as a general animal model. We hypothesized that planaria, though dependent upon simple diffusion of O₂ across the integument for O₂ uptake, would nonetheless show changes in oxygen consumption (V̇O₂)associated with reproductive mode (sexual or asexual), feeding (specific dynamic action), temperature (Q10_s) and photoperiod typical of those responses of more complex invertebrates. In the current experiments, routine V̇O₂ was measured over the range of 13°-28°C in Schmidtea mediterranea and Girardia dorotocephala. At the long-term maintenance temperature of 18°C, routine V̇O₂ was ~13 µl O₂/g/h in the two asexual strains, but approximately twice as high (27 µl O₂/g/h) in the sexual strain of S. mediterranea, suggesting a metabolic cost for sexual reproduction. Metabolic temperature sensitivity, measured by Q₁₀, was ~1-3 for all three groups. All three groups showed a large (~2-3-fold) increase in V̇O₂ within a day following feeding, suggesting a large SDA effect. Starvation, causing 'degrowth' in some planaria, resulted in a loss of 1/3^rd of body mass in sexual S. mediterranea but no body mass loss in either asexual strains. Collectively, these data indicate that, while being a relatively simple flatworm with no dedicated respiratory or circulatory system, their metabolic physiological responses are quite similar to those shown by more complex invertebrates and vertebrates, contributing to their validation as an animal model.

中文翻译：

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淡水浮萍Girardia dorotocephela和Schmidtea mediterranea的代谢生理：生殖方式，特定的动态作用和温度。

Planarians是广泛用于再生，发育生物学，神经生物学和行为研究的动物模型。但是，尽管有关这些信息可能有助于将这些扁虫作为一般动物模型进行验证，但令人惊讶的是，人们对其基本生物学的其他方面知之甚少。我们假设，涡虫，虽然取决于的O-简单扩散₂跨为珠被Ø ₂的吸收，总归显示耗氧量（VO变化₂）与生殖模式（性或无性），进食（特定的动态作用），温度（Q10 _s）和光周期有关，这些都是比较复杂的无脊椎动物的典型反应。在目前的实验中，常规VO ₂用13°-28℃下，在Schmidtea地中海和Girardia dorotocephala的范围内测量。在18℃的长期维持温度，常规VO ₂为〜13微升Ò ₂ /克/两个无性菌株小时，但约两倍高（27微升Ò ₂在性应变/克/小时） S. mediterranea的研究表明有性繁殖的代谢成本。代谢温度敏感性，通过Q ₁₀测量，在所有三个组中均为1-3。所有三组表现出一大（〜2-3倍）在VO增加₂天以下馈送内，这表明大的SDA效果。饥饿，在一些涡虫引起“degrowth”，导致1/3的损失^RD体重性地中海S.但是在任一无性菌株没有体重丧失。总的来说，这些数据表明，虽然是相对较简单的扁虫，没有专用的呼吸或循环系统，但它们的代谢生理反应与更复杂的无脊椎动物和脊椎动物所显示的代谢生理反应非常相似，从而有助于将其验证为动物模型。