Toadfish are very tolerant to environmental stressors, such as low oxygen (hypoxia), high ammonia, or other pollutants. In the lab we study the response of toadfish to these stresssors to understand at what levels are toadfish susceptible so that we might advocate for them with respect to environmental regulations, and the mechanisms involved in tolerance, so we can compare them to less tolerant individuals. This information can be used to understand the physiology of other organisms, including humans.
A good example of using the information we learn about toadfish and applying it to humans is with respect to ammonia. Liver failure in humans can result in the accumulation of ammonia in the blood which can result in brain swelling. Gulf toadfish are very tolerant to high levels of ammonia and interestingly, do not experience brain swelling in response to high ammonia. Ongoing research in our lab using brain cell culture is working to understand the mechanisms that toadfish have to prevent brain swelling as we believe that the Gulf toadfish may make an excellent non-mammalian model to study this human health issue.
