Charming squirrels help scientists
Hibernation of ground squirrels allows you to understand how best to preserve the organs.
The researchers studied fallen into hibernation trinadcatiletnie squirrels, which during the winter sleep dramatically reduce the body temperature (almost zero) and the speed of the heartbeat.
The scientists were interested in the first place, how does the cytoskeleton — intracellular skeleton which provides the life of cells. It turned out that the gophers the cytoskeleton is stored in low temperatures, and the man collapses.
In addition, the mitochondria in human cells and gopher also react to the cooling in different ways: human mitochondria starts the process of destruction at the cellular level, and gophers — no.
This allowed the scientists to develop a scheme of medication that stops the destruction of cells in humans by cooling the body. Experts plan to continue research using stem cells derived from biomaterials gophers, according to LiveScience.