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Section: Mathematical & Computational Biology
Topic: Biophysics and computational biology, Applied mathematics, Evolution

The origin of the allometric scaling of lung ventilation in mammals

Noël, Frédérique1; Karamaoun, Cyril1; Dempsey, Jerome A.2; Mauroy, Benjamin1  
1 Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, LJAD, Vader center, Nice, France
2 John Rankin Laboratory of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, USA

10.24072/pcjournal.76 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 2 (2022), article no. e2.

Get full text PDF Peer reviewed and recommended by PCI

A model of optimal control of ventilation has recently been developed for humans. This model highlights the importance of the localization of the transition between a convective and a diffusive transport of respiratory gas. This localization determines how ventilation should be controlled in order to minimize its energetic cost at any metabolic regime. We generalized this model to any mammal, based on the core morphometric characteristics shared by all mammalian lungs and on their allometric scaling from the literature. Since the main energetic costs of ventilation are related to convective transport, we prove that, for all mammals, the localization of the shift from a convective transport to a diffusive transport plays a critical role on keeping this cost low while fulfilling the lung function. Our model predicts for the first time the localization of this transition in order to minimize the energetic cost of ventilation, depending on mammal mass and metabolic regime. From this optimal localization, we are able to predict allometric scaling laws for both tidal volumes and breathing rates, at any metabolic rate. We ran our model for the three common metabolic rates -- basal, field and maximal -- and showed that our predictions reproduce accurately experimental data available in the literature. Our analysis supports the hypothesis that mammals allometric scaling laws of tidal volumes and breathing rates at a given metabolic rate are driven by a few core geometrical characteristics shared by mammalian lungs and by the physical processes of respiratory gas transport.

Published online:
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.76
Type: Research article
Noël, Frédérique 1; Karamaoun, Cyril 1; Dempsey, Jerome A. 2; Mauroy, Benjamin 1

1 Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, LJAD, Vader center, Nice, France
2 John Rankin Laboratory of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, USA
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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Noël, Frédérique; Karamaoun, Cyril; Dempsey, Jerome A.; Mauroy, Benjamin. The origin of the allometric scaling of lung ventilation in mammals. Peer Community Journal, Volume 2 (2022), article  no. e2. doi : 10.24072/pcjournal.76. https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.76/

Peer reviewed and recommended by PCI : 10.24072/pci.mcb.100005

Conflict of interest of the recommender and peer reviewers:
The recommender in charge of the evaluation of the article and the reviewers declared that they have no conflict of interest (as defined in the code of conduct of PCI) with the authors or with the content of the article.

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